The World's 15 Greatest Hymns represents the sacred recording output of Don Reno, Red Smiley, and the Tennessee Cutups, one of the most musically accomplished bands in 1950s and 1960s bluegrass. Reno was among the handful of five-string banjo players who shaped the instrument's vocabulary in the immediate aftermath of Earl Scruggs, developing a single-string approach that added melodic and chordal dimensions Scruggs's roll-based style did not emphasize. Smiley's warm, accessible tenor made him an ideal partner for devotional material, and "The Old Rugged Cross" — a standard in southern Protestant hymnody — receives a sympathetic reading here. Religious recordings were central to the bluegrass economy throughout this era, and the Tennessee Cutups brought the same precision to their gospel work as to their secular sessions. The album is a representative example of a band whose full contribution to the music is sometimes obscured by the longer shadows of Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs.
Tracklist
- 1 I Wanna Rest 2:16
- 2 Amazing Grace alt version 2:24
- 3 Take The Devil Out Of Me 2:43
- 4 Vision Of A Promised Land 2:06
- 5 Give Me The Roses While I Live 2:07
- 6 Send Down The Rain 2:04
- 7 The Old Rugged Cross Source Recording 2:59
- 8 Row Us Over The Tide 2:40
- 9 Singing With The Angels 2:10
- 10 Beyond The Sunset 3:27
- 11 Little Lord Jesus 2:51
- 12 He Set Me Free 2:03
- 13 When You Kneel At Mother's Grave 2:06
- 14 Just a Closer Walk With Thee alt version 2:49
- 15 For The Bible Tells Me So 2:12
- 16 Is There Room For Me 2:29
- 17 Calvary's Cross 2:44
- 18 Farther Along alt version
- 19 In the Sweet Bye and Bye alt version
- 20 River of Jordan alt version
- 21 Rock of Ages alt version
- 22 Where We’ll Never Grow Old alt version
