Songfacts®:

• Carter penned this song about the pain she felt after losing her mother June and her mother's husband Johnny Cash in the same year: 2003. Carlene explains in the song that after June passed away, Johnny lost his will to live:
  
  Johnny just cried 'cause Junie had died
  He didn't care to carry on
  
  In our interview with Carlene Carter, she explained: "'Lonesome Valley' represents to me the loss of everyone in my life. It was centered around Mom and John and I almost didn't make the last verse have John passing in it but it was part of the story of where I was going."
• This song is based on a hymn called "Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley," which is about how we must bear our own burdens:
  
  We must walk this lonesome valley
  We have to walk it by ourselves
  O, nobody else can walk it for us
  We have to walk it by ourselves
• Carlene Carter lost a third member of her family when her sister Rosey died on October 24, 2003, three weeks after Johnny Cash passed away. She didn't write this into the song because it was too painful.