Readers recommend: songs about mountains | Peter Kimpton

Bluegrass to country, Motown to soul and much more, it’s time to put on your musical boots, rope up and scale your shelves for songs that hit heady heights

“Plastic surgeons are always making mountains out of molehills,” said Dolly Parton, flashing that ever radiant smile, and cleverly refreshing both a cliche and a metaphor. And reminding us mountains are usually twinned with deep valleys. Yet, hailing from Tennessee, and regularly retreating to a remote mountain cabin to inspire creativity, Parton’s talent for songwriting has often been overlooked – “not many people knew I came out of the smoky mountains with a load of songs”. But her admirers come from all quarters. Queen Latifah said: “Let’s be clear. Dolly Parton is a rapper. Somewhere before all the country. I don’t know what happens up there in the mountains when you’re growing up, but she has been spitting rhymes for a long time.”