The Lone Bellow was founded by lead singer and guitarist Zach Williams; singer, mandolinist, and keyboard player Kanene Donehey Pipkin; and singer and guitarist Brian Elmquist. The band formed after Williams’ wife was involved in a serious accident that left her temporarily paralyzed from the neck down. As she recuperated with her future uncertain, Williams began writing haunting songs that dealt with tragedy, hope, and redemption. Following her full recovery, the couple moved to Brooklyn. In 2011, Williams, who had been working as a solo act, began jamming with Elmquist, an old friend, and when Pipkin joined in, the trio knew they had a band. Building on Williams’ songs, and working and writing together along with bassist Jason Pipkin and drummer Justin Glasco, they built up an impressive songbook.

A deal with Sony imprint Descendant Records yielded the group’s critically acclaimed eponymous debut, which rose to number 64 on the Billboard Top 200 in early in 2013. After a year of hard touring, the bandmembers went into the studio with fellow Brooklynite Aaron Dessner of the National for their follow-up album, Then Came the Morning, which arrived in January 2015 and earned them an American Music Award nomination for Best Group/Duo. Following a relocation to Nashville in 2016, the Lone Bellow returned with their third full-length, the Dave Cobb-produced Walk Into a Storm. The self-produced Restless EP arrived in 2018.