“Sawin’ on the Strings” is a bluegrass song credited to the songwriter Lewis Compton and introduced on record by Don Reno, Red Smiley and the Tennessee Cut-Ups in 1957.
The song is, in effect, a celebration of the music itself — a high-spirited number about the joy of playing, of fiddles and banjos “sawin’ on the strings” at a dance or a gathering. Reno and Smiley, one of the most inventive duos in early bluegrass, gave it the brisk, virtuosic treatment such a song calls for.
The song held a place in the bluegrass repertoire as a bright, up-tempo showpiece.
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