Reno Brothers

The Reno Brothers, whose names were Ronnie, Dale, and Don Wayne, followed the example of their father, the acclaimed banjo player Don Reno, by devoting themselves to string band and bluegrass traditions. Ronnie first stepped into professional music around 1956, handling mandolin duties for his father and Red Smiley on Roanoke, Virginia’s Top o’ the Mornin’ television program. After Smiley departed, Ronnie and his father continued to host the show, and by the late 1960s Ronnie had switched to bass with the Osborne Brothers. He remained in that role into the early 1970s before taking over as frontman for Merle Haggard’s Strangers. His first solo chart single, “Homemade Love,” arrived in 1983, three years after he made his screen debut in Clint Eastwood’s Bronco Billy. While Ronnie pursued these separate paths, Dale and Don Wayne joined their father’s Tennessee Cut-Ups after his mid-1970s split from Bill Harrell and stayed with the band for many years. The three brothers finally united following Don Reno’s death in 1984, blending bluegrass with country elements. Their initial recordings featured the cover “Yonder Comes a Freight Train” alongside “Love Will Never Be the Same.” In 1993 they launched a weekly series on the Americana cable network, the only nationally televised program devoted to bluegrass at the time.