Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals
Drifting With the Tide
Our Kind of Grass (1978) Bluegrass Discography
Source Recording: Don Reno, Red Smiley and the Tennessee Cutups (1952) · 2 versions
“Drifting with the Tide” was written by Don Reno and Red Smiley and recorded on January 15, 1952 at King Studios in Cincinnati, Ohio — part of the marathon session that produced 16 sides establishing Reno and Smiley’s identity as a hit-making bluegrass act on King and Federal. Reno wrote or co-wrote every piece cut at that session, and the catalogue from those sides remains the foundation of the duo’s recorded legacy.
The song is built on a simple coastal/tidal metaphor — the narrator’s life cast adrift, no anchor, no shore in sight — in the older country-folk strand of personal-disaster songs. Reno’s bluesy three-finger banjo and Smiley’s smooth baritone vocal give the recording its characteristic mournful pulse; the Tennessee Cut-Ups arrangement is what defines the song’s bluegrass shape today.
The piece has had a long second life in the contemporary bluegrass repertoire and was revived for younger audiences when Billy Strings began performing it in his late-2010s and early-2020s sets. It works comfortably as a moderate-tempo singer’s piece in either G or A and remains a frequent jam call where the singers want a slow, lonesome song with a strong bluesy break.
Drifting With the Tide
Our Kind of Grass (1978) Bluegrass Discography
Drifting With the Tide
Ragged But Right (1987)
Bluegrass Discography
Drifting With the Tide
Across the Blue Ridge Mountains (2011)
Bluegrass Discography
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