Finding Inspiration – Mountain Music

I believe it can be far easier to say what mountain music is not in the attempt to define or explain it. It is not bluegrass nor string band music. It is not blues, folk, or country music per se. The elements and influences that make up mountain music are as varied as the people – from local folk tales to English ballads to rambling, oral histories. The blues that run through mountain music are different but just as deep as the music made in the Mississippi Delta. At times, aesthetically, mountain music just might be the perfect confluence of what I was getting at last week when I wrote: “I had found the world where all my (already) deep-set and budding musical influences were colliding, living side-by-side, pushing and pulling on each other. It’s where Charlie Rich played piano next to C.J. Allen and Hank Williams learned guitar from Tee Tot. It is the place I still live – connecting dots, discovering, constantly in awe of it all, always wanting more.” I could easily add A.P. Carter and Lesley Riddle or Arnold Schultz and Ike Everly to that list.

Doc Watson The Essential Doc Watson

There is nothing that I can write about Doc Watson that hasn’t already been said. His profound greatness was undeniable, and unmatched. Soulfulness oozed out of everything he sang and played on any instrument – acoustic guitar, harmonica, acoustic twelve-string guitar, and banjo. This record has it all. And, we get Merle Watson, too, playing amazing second guitar. There are tracks from other albums I love – “Greenville Trestle High” from 1986’s Riding the Midnight Train or “Nothing to It” from Southbound – but this was my first Doc Watson album. And, they say you never forget your first love.

Essential track: “Rising Sun Blues”

Roscoe Holcomb The High Lonesome Sound

I got this album when it was released in 1998 by Smithsonian Folkways Records. The High Lonesome Sound is a compilation of recordings Roscoe made for Folkways Records in 1962, 1964, and 1974. He plays and sings here like his life depends upon it. The folklorist John Cohen, who was his friend, coined the phrase “high, lonesome sound” to describe Roscoe’s singing. Of course, the phrase has gone on to describe mostly bluegrass – music that Roscoe really didn’t perform. This record and the following one on this list came into my life at the same time. Their impact was and still is undeniable.

Essential track: “Trouble in Mind”

Dock Boggs Country Blues

I believe I read about this album when the magazine was still called The Atlantic Monthly back in 1998 – before music was regulated to streaming or playlists or influencers – and still written about in serious literary and news sources. When the world thinks of country blues, this is not what jumps to mind. But, it should be. Moran Lee “Dock” Boggs might just be the perfect melding of Appalachian folk music derived from the English ballads and the blues. This is blues as deep, and personal, as Son House or Charly Patton – and played on a four string banjo. The drone of the banjo was an inspiration in looking at alternate guitar tunings for recreating some of the sound and feel that Dock issues here.

Essential track: “Country Blues”

J.E. Mainer’s Mountaineers The Legendary Family from the Blue Ridge Mountains

I don’t remember where I found this Arhoolie Record from 1963. This album was another piece of me connecting the dots. “Ramshackle Shack” I first heard from George Jones. “Greenback Dollar” and “If I Lose Let Me Lose” can be found in multiple versions by various artists across my record collection. Joseph Emmett Mainer was an accomplished, well-known fiddler. His band, comprised of family members, recall the unmistakable harmony of siblings – much like the Everly’s, Louvin’s, or Delmore’s harmonies. I don’t believe this album has ever been reissued. But, if you can find it, it’s a treasure-trove of music from the mountains.

Essential track: “If I Lose Let Me Lose”

I would put the droning, hypnotic feeling that can be found listening to Roscoe Holcomb or Dock Boggs next to the intense Mississippi Hill Country performances of R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough.

These records – and plenty of others – were, and still are, a part of the foundation of my musical adventures. And, as far as essential listening goes, they are essential to me. Others might find different albums by the same artists that speak to them more – the simple beauty of music and art. And, any list, suggestion, recommendation should be the jumping off point. The start of exploration. I believe that great art – music, words, images – should inspire more great art. Art that takes chances, explores, and questions. There’s more music in the world than anyone could possibly listen to in a lifetime. The same holds true for writing and visual art. I want to try to get my arms around as much as possible before I make my exit.

Available July 10, 2026 on Cupcakes & Muffins. Preorder/Pre-save here.

Tickets here.

My playlist for Saturday, June 6, 2026 on WICN 90.5fm in Worcester, Massachusetts, and globally at wicn.org:

Frank Stokes “Downtown Blues”

Kenny Burrell featuring Coleman Hawkins “Tres Palabras”

B.B. King “Woke Up This Morning”

Erroll Garner “Mambo Blues”

Big Maybelle “New Kind of Mambo”

Hoagy Carmichael “Memphis in June”

Nina Simone “Memphis in June”

Sly and the Family Stone “Hot Fun in the Summertime”

Lou Rawls “Summertime”

War “Summer”

Raeburn Boyd and his Orchestra featuring Ginnie Powell “Memphis in June”

Bobby Hebb “Sunny”

Ella Fitzgerald “Sunshine of Your Love”

Jimmie Davis “You Are my Sunshine”

Elmore James “The Sun is Shining”

James Booker “On the Sunny Side of the Street”