Jesse Smathers Chases The Light On New Single “Dark Clouds”

Jesse Smathers, singer and guitarist with Lonesome River Band, has released a new single, “Dark Clouds,” on Mountain Home Music Company.

“Dark Clouds” comes from early country and Grand Ole Opry figure Kirk McGee, whose original recording remains little known. Smathers describes the song as “a prayer for finding one’s way in life; a desperate plea to be put on the right path,” noting its “thoughtful and deep lyric” and its lonesome, existential tone.

The recording features Hunter Berry on fiddle, Nick Goad on mandolin, Joe Hannabach on bass, and Corbin Hayslett on banjo, whose mix of old-time and bluegrass styles runs through the track. Smathers delivers the vocal in a lower, more somber register than usual, with harmonies from Goad and Patrick Robertson underscoring lines such as:

My whole life through I searched to find
My special place among mankind
Each road I take, it seems, is wrong
I keep hearing this sad, sad song

and the refrain:

Dark clouds moving across the sun
The earth grows black and once again I’m blind

Smathers points to the contrast between the minor turn in the chorus and the major feel of the verses as a source of emotional balance. The song “help[s] tonally convey the sense of hope in finding where ‘one’ belongs,” and connects it to his own low points and the prayers that helped him through.

A native of Eden, North Carolina with family roots in western North Carolina, Smathers comes from a noted musical lineage. His grandfather Harold Smathers and grand uncle Luke Smathers recorded for June Appal and received the North Carolina Folk Heritage Award in 1993. After early success at fiddlers conventions in North Carolina and Virginia, he joined the James King Band in 2010. He later worked with Nothin’ Fancy, and became a member of Lonesome River Band in 2015, winning the IBMA Momentum Award for Vocalist of the Year in 2017.

Smathers moved to guitar in Lonesome River Band in 2021 and released his self-titled solo album Jesse Smathers in 2022. He now lives near Floyd, Virginia, and teaches at the Handmade Music School when not on the road, continuing to share Appalachian traditions with new audiences.