Biography

DON RENO & BILL HARRELL with The Tennessee Cut-Ups

Vintage Classic Bluegrass
Classic Traditional Songs from Past Generations
CD Mastered from the Original Master Tapes
Original First Edition Album Cover Art
Album Originally Released in 1967

1. Under The Double Eagle (2:25)
2. I’m A Man Of Constant Sorrow (2:12)
3. Long Journy Home (2:00)
4. Red Rockin’ Chair (1:35)
5. Hot Corn – Cold Corn (1:55)
6. Footprints In The Snow (2:04)
7. Gotta Travel On (1:48)
8. Little Pal (2:21)
9. Nine Pound Hammer (1:46)
10. I Don’t Love Nobody (1:23)
11. Poor Ellen Smith (2:02)
12. The Great Speckled Bird (2:30)
13. Limehouse Blues (1:20)
14. Molly And Tenbrooks (1:53)
15. Whitehouse Blues (1:30)
16. When The Roses Bloom Again (2:32)
17. Nobody’s Business (1:56)
18. Dill Pickle Rag (1:38)
19. Keep On The Sunny Side (1:58)
20. Worried Man Blues (2:07)


Don Reno’s Tennessee Cut-Ups was something special. With Red Smiley as a partner (1951 to 1964), the group was one of the most successful in bluegrass music. Their “Top O’ The Morning television show on WDBJ-TV in Roanoke, Virginia provided a regular source of income and base of operations. At the same time, the band members were able to enjoy life a little by not having to tour as much as most full-time bluegrass bands of the day.

While they were together, they created a distinctive sound and memorable songs which are now an important part of bluegrass history. Don and Red spilt in 1964. Don decided to re-form the Cut-Ups and offered Bill Harrell a partnership in his band. Don spoke of Bill Harrell, “I’d known Bill since he worked with Red and me in 1955 and I could see he would make a fine singer and rhythm guitar player. I knew him through the years and I knew him to be one of the finest guys I’d ever known. And I figured there couldn’t be anybody I could pick that would do a better job taking Red’s place with me than Bill, and I was certainly right.”

They began recording immediately with Don on banjo, Bill on guitar, Ronnie Reno on mandolin and George Shuffler on bass. Reno & Harrell with The Tennessee Cut-Ups recorded on the King label in 1968, and Rural Rhythm CD album you have in your hands in 1967. Bill Harrell’s lead signing job fit the Cut-Ups beautifully. The tunes on this CD show just how much his voice sparkled and enhanced the group sound. With Bill on lead and Don on tenor, it was a good combination; it brought out the best in both men. Don wrote or arranged most of the material. As of December 1973, he had written 417 songs.

Red Smiley retired from his own Bluegrass Cut-Ups in 1969 after recording three successful albums on Rural Rhythm. But retirement didn’t suit him very well so he asked Don and Bill if he could join them whenever his health permitted. They of course, said yes and, according to Mr. Reno in his autobiography. “The last two years and five months that Red worked with me and Bill Harrell were the happiest years we spent together. Bill Harrell, Buck Ryan and Jerry McCoury were delighted to have Red with us.”
When Red went back with the group about the spring of 1969, Don and Bill we’re doing well together – about the same as when Reno and Smiley split. Bill welcomed Red’s return and, as Don explained it, “let Red have his front seat back again and insisted on doing this.”
In 1971 fiddler Buck Ryan entered the Rome Recording studio in Columbus, Ohio to record an instrumental album being produced by Dick Unteed for Rural Rhythm with an incredible group of musicians that included; Don Reno, Red Smiley, Bill Harrell, Jerry McCoury, Tom Kiley , Jim Ebert and Bob Finkes. This recording became the Rural Rhythm classic album titled Fiddling Buck Ryan with Don Reno & Red Smiley (RRBR-244).

Album Produced by Lee Sutton & Mac Wiseman
Executive Producer: Uncle Jim O’Neal
Reissue Producer: Sam Passamano, II
Mastered for this CD by Steve Hoffman