First up is Ronnie Reno, who performed with Bill as a member of Reno & Harrell.

“Bill Harrell goes deep into being a Pioneer of the music and was a great influence on a lot of young pickers and singers. I know for a fact that my friend Larry Stephenson was a student of Bill’s. Bill met my Dad (Don Reno) and Red Smiley in the middle 50’s and I remember Bill playing mandolin with them at the Old Dominion Barn Dance in Richmond VA.

Shortly after that I believe Bill went onto the Army. Dad and I moved to Riverdale MD in 1966 and he and Bill had a great 10 year partnership. I was with them for a year and then I moved to Nashville TN. During that short year I got to know Bill very well. He was a gentle man with a lot of talent and was a great business man. Bill had a very smooth voice and played a hard driving rhythm guitar. He was also a very good song writer and interacted well with his fans and friends on stage.

Bill will be remembered as a great influence on our next generations for years to come. I will miss Bill as I considered him a friend and he was always there when I needed him.

May he rest in piece and enjoy singing with Dad and Red on a wonderful trio as of this writing.”

Larry Stephenson also had a few thoughts to share…

“Bill Harrell was the complete package. Guitar playing, songwriting, emceeing, working an audience, and he knew how to sing a song. His phrasing was second to none. When I was with Bill he kept us very busy. He did his own booking and also did some booking in the early days for the Johnson Mountain Boys and other acts in the DC-Baltimore area.

I learned the business of Bluegrass from Bill Harrell……how to find songs, put an album together, book a band, how to treat your band….. just everything about running a band as a business. I’ve tried my best to carry on my ‘Bill Harrell Schooling’ for the last twenty years of the Larry Stephenson Band. He was the best and I will miss him forever.

I want to thank IBMA for Bill’s Distinguished Achievement Award last October at the World of Bluegrass in Nashville, TN. He’s was so happy and never quit talking about it. It was well deserved and way over due.”

We also heard from Eddie and Martha Adcock:

“I worked with Bill a little while in the ’50s in the Washington DC area.  Note that I said “with Bill”, not “for Bill”: he was a very democratic bandleader.

Back then, a band generally wore shirts alike onstage, and the way we paid for ours was with fines. If you cussed onstage or at a job, or if you were late to a show or to a rehearsal, you paid a fine into the shirt kitty. Well, I was just a kid and had no car –and Bill wasn’t that much older than me– but sometimes Bill would have to pick me up, come 50 miles to get me, and 50 back to where we were going; and then if we were late to the show or rehearsal because of that, Bill insisted on paying both our fines! And it would be 200 miles total to get me back home. He was always more than fair.

Bill Harrell was a fun person to work with , too…he was always happy, and he loved to hang out with the band as much as possible. He lived with his parents at that time.

The music with Bill was superb in every way. We had a tremendous following. At that point, the other guys in the band were Carl Nelson on fiddle and keyboard, and Roy Self on bass. I played banjo, and Bill played guitar, of course. Bill sang all the bluegrass material, and some country too, and I sang some country and ‘most all the rockabilly, with Roy Self doing some of that too. Rockabilly was very popular at that time.

The band was extremely tight. We had frequent practice sessions for the new material. All of us got to choose songs.

At one point we recorded some things at Roy Self’s house, with quilts over the windows, but I have no idea what happened to that.”

Martha Adcock adds:

“Bill Harrell was, to me, an enormous rhythm-guitar influence. I’d see him at Carlton Haney festivals in the early ’70s. Bill’s style was so powerful. And he was fast!  Even with the last three fingers on his picking hand hanging out straight, he could really fly. Those fingers were just a blur.”

Eddie rejoins:

“When I was with Bill, we played so fast it seemed like no human could keep up. His hand was going like the blades of a fan!”

Stan Hitchcock, Chairman and CEO of BlueHighways TV commented on what the agreement means to the company.

Our agreement with Comcast is an important affirmation for BlueHighways TV. We are confident that our Americana roots music, back roads travel and cultural programming will resonate with Comcast subscribers, and we are excited about the opportunities our new relationship with Comcast presents.

Spearheaded by Hitchcock and bluegrass legend Ronnie Reno, BHTV includes programming featuring American roots music such as bluegrass, blues, folk western, gospel and traditional country. It also has programming that revolves around rural American lifestyle.

A number of programs the network offers include bluegrass music.

• Heart To Heart – BlueHighways TV Founder Stan Hitchcock draws upon his musical heritage in this 30-minute conversation program where he sits with the stars and old legends of country, gospel, western and bluegrass to talk and play the music that has shaped their lives.
• Old Country Church – An inspirational tribute to American roots told through traditional, country and bluegrass gospel music and stories from church elders and historians.
• Reno’s Old Time Music Festival – Bluegrass music is enjoying an American renaissance, and this 30-minute program celebrates that rebirth with riveting live acoustic performances featuring Ronnie Reno and the Reno Tradition and a variety of guest music legends.
• Woodsongs – Live from the Kentucky Theater in Lexington, this 60-minute program features the best in Bluegrass and Folk music.

If you are already a Comcast subscriber, look for BHTV to soon be available in your area.

Photos by Dave Carney © 2006

Lawson and Reno	Bull Harman	Dan Miller	Herschel Sizemore
The Huber Booth	Katy Daly	Bill Keith	Sewell and Leftwich
Reid and Baucom	Merriam and Bush	Ronnie Reno	Richard Gelardin
Danny Roberts	Roland White	The Smiths	Eberle and Vorndick

This GrassCast is 12 minutes in length and the file download size is 11 MB.

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