The Lost & Found

Formed during 1973, the Lost & Found bluegrass ensemble originally featured bass fiddler Allen Mills alongside banjo player Gene Parker, mandolinist Dempsey Young, and guitarist Roger Handy. Early appearances at bluegrass festivals helped establish their audience, while Mills’s distinctive songwriting skills played a major role in building their reputation; the original configuration’s recording of “Love of the Mountains” later emerged as a modern bluegrass standard. Traditional numbers also found a place in their repertoire, among them “The Man Who Wrote ‘Home Sweet Home’ Never Was a Married Man.” Across most releases the same blend of original and older material prevailed, allowing the group to serve as a consistent, constructive presence within contemporary bluegrass over many years. By the middle of the 1990s only Mills and Young remained, bringing guitarist Ray Berrier and banjoist Lynwood Lunsford into the lineup. Young’s death at age 52 occurred in December 2006; the following autumn Scott Napier joined on mandolin, completing a quartet that included founding member Mills plus banjoist Ronald Smith and guitarist Scottie Sparks. Seven years after their previous album, the 2009 release Love, Lost and Found presented Young’s last sessions with the band on half its tracks and Napier’s contributions on the remaining half. Rebel Records marked the ensemble’s three-decade association with the label by issuing the 14-track compilation Down on Sawmill Road in 2011.