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You may not have yet heard of a rising Americana band called 49 Winchester. The Virginia-based group has toured a couple of continents since its inception in 2013.
Songs called “Anchor,” “Last Call” and “It’s a Shame” have become fan faves. The quirky honky-tonk “Why Else Would I Call You” makes mention of Bristol, the mountain city dissected by the Tennessee-Virginia border, where the band has recorded.
But it’s the song “Russell County Line” that has tugged at hearts with an aching to return to the southwest Virginia county where the band took root in Castlewood and took its name from the address of a band member on Winchester Street. “That is actually the address where the music started,” says guitarist Bus Shelton, 34. “We started hanging out there and sat out on that porch and came up with the tune ‘Michigan.’ And that was like the first musical thing we’d ever done.”
Then, when they needed a name, all they had to do was look at the mailbox, Shelton says.
The band has since toured as far away as Sweden, where fans sang “Russell County Line” in unison — just like they do in Georgia or Tennessee.
Shelton, who also grew up in other southwest Virginia towns like Saltville, Chilhowie and Lebanon, cites band influences that range from Lynyrd Skynyrd to AC/DC to Slipknot.
Local officials recently honored the band with a tag — “Home of 49 Winchester” — on a Russell County welcome sign along US-58A.
“It’s a very, very cool thing to get,” Shelton says. “I love all this traveling, but it doesn’t make me feel like I do when I see Russell County.”
The story above first appeared in our November / December 2025 issue.
