The Lonesome River Band was formed in 1982 as a local bluegrass band in Virginia. Tim Austin, whose background was banjo, played rhythm guitar and sang lead vocals. Steve Thomas played mandolin and fiddle. Rick Williams played banjo, and Jerry McMillan played bass. They released their debut project, <i>I Guess Heartaches are in Style This Year</i>, on a regional label in 1985; they released their national debut project the following year.

In 1989, banjo player Sammy Shelor joined the group. Shelor co-founded the Virginia Squires in 1983 and stayed with them until he joined the Lonesome River Band. Shelor, who has been a consistent face in the group for the more than two decades since, learned to play banjo at age five from a clawhammer-style banjo player, Carp Ayers. He won the IBMA Banjo Player of the Year award in 1995 and 1998. He was inducted into the Virginia Music Hall of Fame in September 2009.

Around the same time, bass player and lead vocalist Ronnie Bowman joined the group. He started singing in his family's Group at age three and stayed with them until his late teens, when he moved into bluegrass music. The group's new lineup hit the mark from their first album together (<i>Carrying the Tradition</i>), which debuted at #1 on Bluegrass Unlimited's best-selling albums chart. After five months on the chart, it was replaced by the group's next release, <i>Old Country Town</i>—which was at the #1 spot for six months.

Bowman has also relased several solo albums, including <i>Cold Virginia Night</i>, which won the IBMA award for Best Album of the Year in 1997. Bowman was also named Vocalist of the Year at the IBMA's 1995 awards.

As the group became more popular, founding member Tim Austin decided to leave to devote more time to studio work. He was replaced by Kenny Smith but remained active in the group's recording projects. Mandolin player / tenor singer Don Rigsby, who had been a member of J.D. Crowe and the New South, joined before the 1996 release of <i>One Step Forward<i>.

In 1997, they received the SPBGMA (Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America) award for Vocal Group of the Year.

Current members include Shelor, Andy Ball (mandolin player / lead vocalist, Brandon Rickman (rhythm guitar/lead vocalist), Mike Anglin (bass player), and Mike Hartgrove (fiddler). Hartgrove had previously been a member of Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and was a founding member of IIIrd Tyme Out.