This story is part of a series reported by students at the Handmade Music School in Floyd County. The students are compiling a songbook of tunes and songs played in their community and telling the stories behind the music.
Allen Mills of Ferrum was a founding member and songwriter for the influential Virginia bluegrass band the Lost & Found. Mills passed away in August at the age of 88. The band will be inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame in October.
One song Mills wrote, “Wild Mountain Flowers for Mary,” is a favorite that’s often played in Southwest Virginia music communities. It turns out there’s a true story behind the song – and some roadside inspiration.
“It might have been this time of year, the little purple flowers,” he said. “The flowers about as big as your thumb – pretty, beautiful little purple flowers. They’re wild mountain flowers.”
Mills said his bluegrass band Lost & Found did a lot of traveling to gigs, and on one of the trips, he asked the driver to stop and pull over. He got out his notebook and, inspired by the flowers on the side of the road, he started writing lyrics.
The lyrics were about a young couple he knew from his church growing up. The couple was in love, but Mills remembered there being a mystery around their relationship.
“‘Wild Mountain Flowers for Mary’ started because I had it in my mind that they were sweethearts but they were never married,” said Mills. “And the reason they didn't get married I never knew, and nobody else ever did, I don’t guess.”
Mills only realized the reason later, after the young woman died from an illness. The story stuck with him for years. Until it came out on the page.
Allen Mills was the main songwriter for the Lost & Found, which came together in Franklin County in 1973. The other three original band members were Gene Parker, Dempsey Young, and Roger Handy. Allen Mills played bass and was known for his high tenor voice. The band toured internationally and inspired generations of bluegrass musicians – musicians like Jesse Smathers, who teaches the song to Handmade Music School students in Floyd.
“The imagery is pretty cut and dry,” Smathers said. “And the way that it just rolls off the tongue in a song. That’s what’s, I think, genius about it.”
Smathers was influenced by the Lost & Found as a boy. Now he’s a member of the renowned Bluegrass band the Lonesome River Band.
“You can see the flowers,” he said. “‘My days of youth are gone and I am happy, and my time’s not very far away. I picked some wild mountain flowers for Mary and placed them on her grave today.’ You can just imagine everything. Mountain poetry.”
The Lost & Found will be inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association Hall of Fame at its 37th Annual Bluegrass Music Awards Ceremony on October 22. The Floyd Country Store will celebrate the band with an event on October 25.
This story was supported by Virginia Humanities.
