"High Lonesome Sound" is a single by American country music artist Vince Gill

Vince Gill

Vincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...

. Released in April 1996, it was the first single from his album, High Lonesome Sound

High Lonesome Sound

High Lonesome Sound is the eighth studio album from American country music artist Vince Gill. It was released in 1996 on MCA Nashville Records. It features the singles "High Lonesome Sound," "Worlds Apart," "Pretty Little Adrianna, "A Little More Love" and "You and You Alone." Two versions of the...

. The song reached #12 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot Country Singles & Tracks

Hot Country Songs

Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States.This 60-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly mostly by airplay and occasionally commercial sales...

 chart in June 1996 and #1 on the RPM

RPM (magazine)

RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...

Country Tracks chart in Canada the following month.

At the 39th Grammy Awards, "High Lonesome Sound" won the award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals

Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals

The Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals was an honor presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to quality country music collaborations for artists who do not normally perform together...

.

An alternate version of the song was recorded in a more bluegrass

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 orchestration and backed by Alison Krauss & Union Station

Alison Krauss

Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...

.

Critical reception

Deborah Evans Price, of Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

magazine reviewed the song favorably, saying that the "vibrant and bluegrassy sound of the instruments combined with Gill's stellar vocals create a winning combination."

Chart performance

"High Lonesome Sound" debuted at number 50 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks for the week of April 13, 1996

Chart (1996)	Peak position
U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks	12
Canadian RPM Country Tracks	1