Red Smiley and the Bluegrass Cutups cover

Red Smiley and the Bluegrass Cutups

Red Smiley and the Bluegrass Cutups

Album · 1967 · Rural Rhythm RRRS 160

Red Smiley and the Blue Grass Cutups was issued by Rural Rhythm in 1967 (RRRS-160). It came from the band Smiley kept after he and Don Reno parted ways in November 1964: Reno took the Tennessee Cut-Ups name on the road, and Smiley stayed in Roanoke, Virginia, to carry on the weekday Top o’ the Morning show on WDBJ-TV, where Reno and Smiley had started it at the end of 1956.

The album was recorded in Akron, Ohio, in 1966 with Lee Sutton producing. Smiley sings lead and plays rhythm guitar, with Gene Burrows on mandolin, Clarence “Tater” Tate on fiddle, and John Palmer, Reno and Smiley’s bass player since 1955, on bass. Billy Edwards (possibly David Deese on some sessions) plays banjo, and Edwards and Palmer sing the harmony parts.

The twenty-one tracks are mostly short, many under two minutes, and nearly all are traditional material: mountain songs such as “Little Maggie,” “Shady Grove,” “Darlin’ Corey,” “Little Birdie” and “In the Pines”; work and railroad songs including “Take This Hammer,” “900 Miles” and “Wreck of the Old No. 9”; and gospel numbers such as “Somebody Touched Me” and “Working on a Building.” “Big Sandy” and “Silver Bells” are instrumentals. The same band recorded a second Rural Rhythm album, RRRS-182, in Akron in 1967. Top o’ the Morning was cancelled in 1968, and Smiley died in January 1972, aged 46.

Tracklist

  1. 1 Roll on Buddy alt version 1:37
  2. 2 Summertime Is Past And Gone 2:01
  3. 3 Big Sandy 1:02
  4. 4 Take This Hammer alt version 1:59
  5. 5 Wreck of the Old No. 9 alt version 2:42
  6. 6 Let The Church Roll On 1:56
  7. 7 Short Life of Trouble alt version 2:21
  8. 8 Shady Grove alt version 1:16
  9. 9 Little Maggie alt version 2:44
  10. 10 Reuben’s Train alt version 3:34
  11. 11 Silver Bells 1:49
  12. 12 Oh! Monah 1:52
  13. 13 Tupelo County Jail 2:04
  14. 14 Black Eyed Susan 1:17
  15. 15 Fallen Leaf 2:35
  16. 16 Something Got Hold Of Me 2:31
  17. 17 Little Birdie alt version 1:59
  18. 18 In the Pines alt version 3:10
  19. 19 Darlin' Corey 1:20
  20. 20 Working on a Building alt version 3:36
  21. 21 Somebody Touched Me alt version 2:35
  22. 22 A Beautiful Life alt version
  23. 23 I’ll Be No Stranger There alt version
  24. 24 It’s Raining Here this Morning alt version 1:40
  25. 25 Little Glass of Wine alt version
  26. 26 Take Me in the Lifeboat alt version

Share Playlist