CMH Records releases first time digital release and remaster for the long-out-of-print “The Don Reno Story”.
This 1976 recording captures a timeless and inventive bluegrass artist earnestly revisiting many of his greatest works from across his career. Mass audiences may be familiar with Don Reno’s iconic playing via his and Arthur Smith’s surprise hit “Feudin’ Banjos” (made famous as “Dueling Banjos” in the 1972 film Deliverance), but the musician’s history and work goes much deeper than that.
All these skills are on display on this excellent double-LP, recorded specifically for CMH records in 1976 with The Tennessee Cut-Ups and guitarist/vocalist Bill Harrell, collaborator since 1966.
With his group The Tennessee Cut-Ups, Don made his first recordings in Cincinnati in 1952. It wasn’t long before he became known as an innovator of bluegrass banjo and guitar techniques, recognized for developing his own two-finger “single string” approach to the banjo and likewise considered a foundational adopter of flatpicking guitar technique within bluegrass.
Beyond that, Reno was a masterful songwriter and vocalist and he had the records and credentials to prove it with over 25 full-length albums and over 60 singles dating back to 1952.