Lonesome Pine doesn’t try to impress you. It doesn’t shine your shoes or comb your hair or pretend it’s anything other than what it is: a couple of guys with guitars, a handful of busted‑up stories, and a band that sounds like it’s been kicked around enough to know better but still keeps playing.
Who Were The Lonesome Strangers?
The Lonesome Strangers were an American country-rock/roots-rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1984 by singer-guitarists Randy Weeks and Jeff Rymes. They were part of the Southern California roots/country revival of the 1980s, alongside artists such as Dwight Yoakam, Dave Alvin and others.
They never became household names. They didn’t get rich. They didn’t get shiny tour buses or platinum plaques. What they did get was a reputation — the kind that follows you around like a stray dog: real musicians with real songs.
After Lonesome Pine, they put out The Lonesome Strangers (1989) and Land of Opportunity (1997). They kept playing, kept writing, kept showing up in bars and small venues where the air smelled like sweat and beer. They were the kind of band critics respected and musicians admired — the kind of band that survives on grit instead of glamour.
Lonesome Pine – The Review
“Don’t Cross the Bad Man” opens the album and is a tight opener that feels like a warning scrawled on a bar bathroom wall. Rymes wrote it, and you can hear the grit under his fingernails.
“Ton of Shame” is the sound of two men dragging the same old regret down the road. The title track “Lonesome Pine” is a short, sharp shock. No wasted motion.
“Here Comes the Night” is a cover of the Bert Berns tune, but these guys don’t cover songs — they drag them through the alley and make them smell like diesel and cheap beer. Uptempo, hillbilly fun, the kind of thing you’d hear blasting from a broken jukebox in a place where nobody even looks at you nevermind asks your name.
The One Who Wore My Ring — Weeks and Rymes again, and this one aches. There is the slow burn of £The One Who Wore My Ring” which lingers like a cigarette left in an ashtray too long.
After Lonesome Pine, they put out The Lonesome Strangers (1989) and Land of Opportunity (1997). They kept playing, kept writing, kept showing up in bars where the floor sticks to your boots and the crowd actually listens. Their career wasn’t a rocket; it was a long, dusty walk. But sometimes the long walk is the only honest way to get anywhere.
Ultimately, Lonesome Pine is a record for people who’ve been kicked around a little. It’s for the ones who know that life doesn’t always give you the chorus you want, but you sing it anyway. It’s rough, fast, loud in places, tender in others, and never pretends to be anything other than a snapshot of two men and their band trying to make something true.
The Vinyl Review
Picked up at local Nottingham record shop Fac1968 with a few other gems for a paltry £2. The cover is in fine condition save for the odd light tear and wearing in the corners. The vinyl itself is in near mint condition, perhaps an unplayed purchase hoping for something more akin to Jason & The Scorchers!! I had never heard of them before but glad I shelled out a couple of quid to check them out and for that money any complaints are meaningless.
Donnie’s Rating: 7/10
