Mountains and Memories, released on Rebel in 1985, is an album by the Virginia Squires, a hard-driving traditional band whose roster proved a remarkable launching point for the talent it gathered. Mark Newton sang lead and played guitar, with Sammy Shelor on banjo and the brothers Rickie and Ronnie Simpkins on fiddle and bass — young musicians who would go on to anchor the Lonesome River Band, the Seldom Scene, and other leading groups in the years that followed. Here they are caught early, balancing original songs with carefully chosen traditional material and playing with a tightness that belied their age. The record reflects Rebel's steady investment in traditional, Appalachian-rooted bluegrass, and it documents a band whose importance is measured partly by what its members went on to do. Shelor's banjo in particular already carried the drive that would become a signature.
Tracklist
- 1 Cold Sheets of Rain alt version 2:07
- 2 The sky is weeping 3:10
- 3 Chilly winds 4:36
- 4 Girl I left in sunny Tennessee 3:29
- 5 Ticket to ride 2:09
- 6 Country song 2:53
- 7 Only a memory away 3:43
- 8 I will run 2:37
- 9 Nightime lady 3:35
- 10 MacClenny farewell 4:43
- 11 Honky tonk women 2:50
