Don Reno
Encyclopedia
Don Wesley Reno was an American bluegrass
Bluegrass music
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

 and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

ian best known as a banjo player in partnership with Red Smiley
Arthur Lee "Red" Smiley
Arthur Lee "Red" Smiley was a bluegrass and country musician, best known for his collaboration with Don Reno under the name Reno and Smiley....

, and later with guitarist Bill Harrell.

Biography

Born in Buffalo, South Carolina
Buffalo, South Carolina
Buffalo is a census-designated place in Union County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 1,266 at the 2010 United States Census.-Geography:Buffalo is located at ....

, Don Reno grew up on a farm in Haywood County
Haywood County, North Carolina
-National protected areas:* Blue Ridge Parkway * Great Smoky Mountains National Park * Pisgah National Forest -Major Highways & Roads:* Interstate 40* U.S. Highway 19* U.S. Highway 23* U.S. Highway 74* U.S...

, North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

. He began playing the banjo at the age of five. His father gave him a guitar four years later; and in 1939 12-year-old Reno joined the Morris Brothers in performing at a local radio station. He left one year later to join Arthur Smith, with whom he would years later record "Feudin' Banjos". In 1943 he received an offer from Bill Monroe
Bill Monroe
William Smith Monroe was an American musician who created the style of music known as bluegrass, which takes its name from his band, the "Blue Grass Boys," named for Monroe's home state of Kentucky. Monroe's performing career spanned 60 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader...

 to become a member of the Bluegrass Boys, but chose instead to enlist in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

. Trained as a horse soldier at Fort Riley
Fort Riley
Fort Riley is a United States Army installation located in Northeast Kansas, on the Kansas River, between Junction City and Manhattan. The Fort Riley Military Reservation covers 100,656 acres in Geary and Riley counties and includes two census-designated places: Fort Riley North and Fort...

, Kansas, he was sent to the Pacific Theater to fight on foot. He eventually served in Merrill's Marauders
Merrill's Marauders
Merrill’s Marauders or Unit Galahad, officially named the 5307th Composite Unit , was a United States Army long range penetration special operations unit in the South-East Asian Theater of World War II which fought in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations, or CBI...

 and was wounded in action.

Influenced by old-time
Old-time music
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...

 banjo player Snuffy Jenkins
Snuffy Jenkins
DeWitt "Snuffy" Jenkins was an American old time banjo player and an early proponent of the three-finger banjo style.-Biography:...

 and others, Reno developed his own three finger "single-string" style that allowed him to play scales and complicated fiddle tunes note-for-note. And yet, the Reno style encompasses much more than just single-string picking; double-stops, double-time picking, triple-pull offs—all of these, and other techniques make Reno's playing as recognizable as the smell of fresh-cut grass. According to his son, Don Wayne Reno
Don Wayne Reno
Don Wayne Reno is a bluegrass musician and banjo player, and also an ordained minister. He is a son of famed bluegrass musician Don Reno. Reno is a mainstay of Hayseed Dixie with his brother Dale Reno as the mandolinist.-External links:*...

, "My dad told me more than once that the reason he started his own style of banjo picking was this: When he came out of the service, many people said 'You sound just like Earl Scruggs
Earl Scruggs
Earl Eugene Scruggs is an American musician noted for perfecting and popularizing a 3-finger banjo-picking style that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music...

.' He said that really bothered him considering he never played a banjo while he was in the service, and when he returned to the U.S., he continued to play in the style he had always played before."

In 1948 Reno became a member of the Bluegrass Boys. Two years later, with Red Smiley
Arthur Lee "Red" Smiley
Arthur Lee "Red" Smiley was a bluegrass and country musician, best known for his collaboration with Don Reno under the name Reno and Smiley....

, he formed Reno and Smiley
Reno and Smiley
Reno and Smiley were a musical duo composed of Don Reno and Red Smiley. They were one of the most acclaimed duos in country music of the 1950s and early '60s.-How They Met:...

 and the Tennessee Cutups, a partnership that lasted fourteen years. Among their hits were "I'm Using My Bible For A Road Map", "I Wouldn't Change You If I Could" and "Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die". Included in this lineup was his son, Ronnie Reno, who played mandolin. Videos from those days are shown regularly on Ronnie's show on RFD-TV. In 1964, after the retirement of Red Smiley, Reno and guitarist Bill Harrell formed Reno & Harrell. Red Smiley joined Reno and Harrell in 1969, remaining with them until his death in 1972. From 1964 until 1971 Reno also performed with Benny Martin
Benny Martin
Benny Edward Martin , was an American bluegrass fiddler who invented the 8-string fiddle.-Biography:Born in Sparta, Tennessee, his father and two of his sisters played music professionally...

. In the 1970s he played with The Good Ol' Boys, composed of Frank Wakefield
Frank Wakefield
Franklin Delano Roosevelt Wakefield is an innovative American mandolin player in the bluegrass music style. Wakefield is known for his collaborations with a number of important and well-known bands, including Red Allen, Don Reno, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman and the Greenbriar Boys.-Biography:Born...

 on mandolin, David Nelson
David Nelson
David or Dave Nelson may refer to:*Dave Nelson , American skateboarder*Dave Nelson , American baseball player and sportscaster*Dave Nelson , Canadian Jazz Musician...

 on guitar, Chubby Wise
Chubby Wise
Robert Russell "Chubby" Wise was an American bluegrass fiddler.Wise began playing fiddle at age 15, working locally in the Jacksonville area. He joined the Jubilee Hillbillies in 1938, then began playing with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1942, including dates at the Grand Ole Opry...

 on fiddle, and Pat Campbell on bass. Reno began performing with his sons Don Wayne
Don Wayne Reno
Don Wayne Reno is a bluegrass musician and banjo player, and also an ordained minister. He is a son of famed bluegrass musician Don Reno. Reno is a mainstay of Hayseed Dixie with his brother Dale Reno as the mandolinist.-External links:*...

 and Dale in later years.

Don Reno died in 1984 at the age of 57. He is buried in Spring Hill Cemetery, Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg, Virginia
Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...

. In 1992 he was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor
International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor
Induction to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, called the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor from its creation in 1991 through 2006, is managed by the International Bluegrass Music Association, and the Hall itself is maintained at the International Bluegrass Music Museum in...

.

Further reading

  • Tony Trischka, Pete Wernick. Masters of the 5-String Banjo, Oak Publications, 1988.

External links

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