Lostine
Responsible Agent: Andrew Bestick
Links: COMING SOON
Download: PhotoS
Nashville-based Americana/folk trio Lostine is exploring and cultivating a soundscape that relies on the emotive potential of acoustic instruments to showcase original songs. Its members – Meredith Lane (lead vocals/guitar), Mike Miz (vocals/guitar), and Forrest O’Connor (vocals/mandolin/guitar) – have each dedicated their lives to performing new music, and despite hailing from three different corners of the country, their shared vision of what folk writing could look like a quarter-way into the 21st century prompted them to join forces in late 2024.
Individually, the members of Lostine have worked with a wide array of artists and performed in major venues throughout the country. A Nashville native and Tennessee State Mandolin Champion, O’Connor has collaborated with Paul Simon, Zac Brown, Steve Martin & Martin Short, Emmylou Harris, Bela Fleck, and many others over the last 15 years. In 2015, he co-founded the O’Connor Band with his father, seven-time CMA Award-winning fiddler Mark O’Connor; Forrest wrote several songs, including the title track, for the O’Connor Band’s first album Coming Home, which debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Top Bluegrass Albums Chart and won a Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.
It was during an O’Connor Band tour nearly a decade ago that Forrest first met (then 14 year-old) Lane in her small hometown of Enterprise, Oregon, where she would go on to develop a strong following thanks to her vocal and songwriting prowess as well as her collaborations with notable artists from the region, including ACM Award-winner Zach Top and Billboard chart-toppers The Band Joseph. The town of Enterprise – five miles southeast of the even smaller town of Lostine, where Lane attended school and church – is nestled in the breathtaking Wallowa County wilderness, which served as a powerful inspiration for the development of Lane’s artistry and songwriting voice.
Miz, a native of northeast Pennsylvania, spent countless hours as a teenager developing his guitar and songwriting chops, which landed him bar and festival gigs throughout the mid-Atlantic before adulthood. He has since shared the stage with Billy Ray Cyrus, Garth Hudson from The Band, and Andrew Farriss of INXS, among others, and he recently made his Grand Ole Opry debut playing lead electric guitar alongside rising star performer Paul McDonald. Miz and O’Connor connected in spring 2024 (thanks to Miz’s online classifieds listing of a vintage Fender amp, of all things) and soon thereafter worked together on various shows and recording projects.
Lane, Miz, and O’Connor began meeting up on cold nights this past winter in their friend and collaborator (and fiddler extraordinaire) Eli Bishop’s small studio shed in Madison, TN, to arrange and prepare for a series of live music videos, which they filmed at Zac Brown’s Southern Ground Studio in early 2025. They are currently working on writing their first album, collaborating extensively with recent Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Marcus Hummon (Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, The Chicks) to shape and hone a sound that combines memorable melodies with exploratory harmonies, instrumental virtuosity, and lyrical acuity.