“I’m Using My Bible for a Road Map” is credited on its original King single to Don Reno and Charles Schroeder (the label spells it “Roadmap”). Reno and Red Smiley recorded it with the Tennessee Cut-Ups at the King studio in Cincinnati on 15 January 1952, with Syd Nathan producing: Reno on banjo, Smiley on guitar, Chuck Haney on mandolin, Gopher Addis on fiddle and Jay Haney on bass. Smiley sings the verses, and the chorus is a four-part arrangement with Reno on tenor, Chuck Haney on lead, Smiley on baritone and Jay Haney on bass. King issued it in March 1952 on a single with Reno’s “Hear Jerusalem Mourn” on the other side, and in February 1957 it opened the LP Sacred Songs by Don Reno and Red Smiley.
The lyric works a single metaphor through the Christian life: the Bible is the map, the Ten Commandments give the directions, the twelve disciples are the road signs, and Jesus sees the traveller through. The chorus promises no detours in heaven and no rough roads on the way, with heaven as the last stop. A later verse reaches back to the Old Testament, noting that the children of Israel used the same map when God brought them across the Red Sea.
Reno and Smiley returned to the idea on 6 April 1954 with “Since I’ve Used My Bible for a Road Map,” released by King that August. Their original recording was later chosen for The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music (1981). Among later versions, the Country Gentlemen recorded it on 11 June 1970 at Roy Homer’s studio in Clinton, Maryland, for One Wide River to Cross (Rebel, 1971), with Charlie Waller singing lead and Bill Emerson, Jimmy Gaudreau and Bill Yates on the harmonies.
