Throughout several decades Bill Harrell maintained his standing among bluegrass music’s most enduring favorites by embracing a restrained, conventional style as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. He entered the world in Marion, Virginia, on 14 September 1934, and first developed his musical interests as a boy by taking up the guitar and studying piano. While enrolled at a Maryland college he discovered a deep attraction to bluegrass and began playing mandolin in a small trio. Subsequent stints with various Washington, D.C.-area ensembles, among them the Rocky Mountain Boys, brought him into contact with Eddie Adcock, Donny Bryant, Smiley Hobbs, Smitty Irvin, Carl Nelson, and Roy Self.
An automobile accident during his military service left him hospitalized for nearly a year. After his discharge he settled back in Washington and made his earliest recordings. In 1960 he assembled the Virginians, featuring Irvin on banjo, Buck Ryan on fiddle, and Stoney Edwards on bass. The ensemble issued The Wonderful World of Bluegrass Music in 1963 and followed two years later with Ballads and Bluegrass. Besides conducting a weekly television show from Harrisonburg, Virginia, the group performed regularly along the East Coast and made repeated appearances on Jimmy Dean’s network program. Irvin departed in 1965, after which Don Stover took his place on banjo.
Harrell soon moved on to Don Reno and the Tennessee Cut-Ups, a collaboration that lasted more than ten years and coincided with renewed public enthusiasm for bluegrass fueled by the expanding festival scene. Shortly after Harrell’s arrival, his former Virginians colleague Buck Ryan also joined the Cut-Ups. In 1966 Reno and Harrell released the album The Most Requested Songs. By the time of 1969’s I’m Using My Bible for a Roadmap, Reno’s earlier partner Red Smiley had come out of retirement and begun appearing with the band both live and on record.
Following additional releases with Reno, Harrell and bassist Ed Ferris parted on good terms to revive the Virginians, bringing in Harrell’s longtime associate Carl Nelson on fiddle and adding Darrell Sanders on banjo. The reconstituted group delivered Bluegrass and Ballads in 1978, then issued the successive albums Bluegrass Gospel, Pure and Simple and I Can Hear Virginia Calling Me in 1980. Although personnel continued to shift, Harrell guided the Virginians well into the 1990s, producing further recordings that included 1983’s Walking in the Early Morning Dew, 1986’s Blue Virginia Blue, and 1990’s After Sunrise.
