Reno & Smiley
Things were tough indeed for Bluegrass performers when this album was cut and issued (an a vinyl LP) on the Rome label in 1971. There was little market for Bluegrass music, except for a few hot spots in the Southeast, parts of Ohio and the Washington, D.C. area. Don Reno was teaming with Bill Harrell, and Red Smiley had basically retired from the music for health reasons, when the idea came up for the duo to reunite for a series of shows and perhaps a recording. The album that resulted got essentially no distribution, and it is estimated that fewer than 500 copies were sold. Smiley then passed away on Jan 2 of 1972. While this record does not match the quality of Reno & Smiley’s best King or Dot work, and the sound quality shows some distortion in places, it is very much Reno & Smiley, they were still in good vocal form, and they recorded some songs that they never cut elsewhere, including a young Dave Evans piece called Highway 52—a solid, spirited performance that is one of the highlights of the disc. There’s also some of Reno’s great guitar work on an excellent version of Shine Hallelujah Shine
Things were tough indeed for Bluegrass performers when this album was cut and issued (an a vinyl LP) on the Rome label in 1971. There was little market for Bluegrass music, except for a few hot spots in the Southeast, parts of Ohio and the Washington, D.C. area. Don Reno was teaming with Bill Harrell, and Red Smiley had basically retired from the music for health reasons, when the idea came up for the duo to reunite for a series of shows and perhaps a recording. The album that resulted got essentially no distribution, and it is estimated that fewer than 500 copies were sold. Smiley then passed away on Jan 2 of 1972. While this record does not match the quality of Reno & Smiley’s best King or Dot work, and the sound quality shows some distortion in places, it is very much Reno & Smiley, they were still in good vocal form, and they recorded some songs that they never cut elsewhere, including a young Dave Evans piece called Highway 52—a solid, spirited performance that is one of the highlights of the disc. There’s also some of Reno’s great guitar work on an excellent version of Shine Hallelujah Shine