The High Lonesome Sound weaves a portrait of a region and way of life with the story of Roscoe Holcomb, the extraordinary singer-guitarist whom Eric Clapton once called his “favorite country musician.” Images of Roscoe Holcomb singing on his back porch or working a hoe against stubborn soil are intercut with scenes of coal miners, passionate church services, a riverside baptism, Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys singing on the Hazard, Kentucky courthouse steps, and stark, intense visions of life in eastern Kentucky.