Mountain songs are a whole sub-tradition in bluegrass — songs about the hills people came from, the ones they left, and the ones they’re buried under. The 22 here aren’t the warhorses everyone calls at a jam. They’re the ones that get pulled out by pickers who’ve been digging a little deeper. Some come from songwriters like Randall Hylton and Ola Belle Reed who wrote plenty that stuck, plus a few that didn’t get their due. Others are newer pieces by writers like Larry Keel, Sarah Siskind, and Chris Brashear that deserve to travel further than they have. They share a sense of place and a kind of plainspoken ache that rewards repeated listening.

Use this as a listening list first. Pick three or four, sit with the recordings, then learn the one that won’t leave you alone. Each song’s page on Picker’s Guide has chord charts, lyrics, recordings, and song history to take you the rest of the way.