Country Songs (King Records 701) is a studio album from Don Reno and Arthur Lee "Red" Smiley and the Tennessee Cut-Ups, the Roanoke, Virginia ensemble whose King Records contract made them one of the most prolific bluegrass recording acts of the 1950s and early 1960s, presenting the commercial country repertoire in bluegrass ensemble treatment. Reno plays banjo and sings; Smiley plays guitar and sings lead; Mack Magaha plays fiddle; Ronnie Reno plays mandolin; and John Palmer holds the bass. The "country songs" designation signals that the album draws from the mainstream Nashville repertoire of its era — material that Reno and Smiley regularly incorporated into their program to maintain commercial radio viability alongside the hard-core bluegrass instrumentals and traditional pieces that defined their ensemble identity on the extensive King Records catalog they built through the late 1950s.
Tracklist
- 1 Freight Train Boogie alt version 3:02
- 2 Money, marbles, and chalk 2:58
- 3 Dark as a Dungeon alt version 2:47
- 4 Lonesome Wind Blues alt version 2:52
- 5 She has forgotten 2:58
- 6 Don’t Let Your Sweet Love Die alt version 2:45
- 7 East Bound Freight Train alt version 2:40
- 8 Eight More Miles to Louisville alt version 3:33
- 9 Charlie Brooks and Nellie Adair 3:25
- 10 Mountain Rosa Lee 2:40
- 11 Gathering flowers from the hillside 2:40
- 12 I’m Blue I’m Lonesome alt version 2:50
