George McKinley Reneau (May 18, 1902 – June 5, 1938) was an American blind

street musician Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...

who became one of

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

's earliest recording artists. Known as "The Blind Musician of the Smoky Mountains", Reneau recorded more than 50 songs on the

Vocalion Vocalion Records is an American record company and label. History The label was founded in 1916 by the Aeolian Company, a maker of pianos and organs, as Aeolian-Vocalion; the company also sold phonographs under the Vocalion name. "Aeolian" was ...

and

Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These invention ...

labels in the mid-1920s. While he is credited on his early recordings as a solo artist on vocals, guitar and harmonica, the singing on many if not most of his songs was by an uncredited

Gene Austin Lemeul Eugene Lucas (June 24, 1900 – January 24, 1972), better known by his stage name Gene Austin, was an American singer and songwriter, one of the early "crooners". His recording of " My Blue Heaven" sold over 5 million copies and was for a ...

, a

vaudville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

performer and

Tin Pan Alley Tin Pan Alley was a collection of music publishers and songwriters in New York City that dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It originally referred to a specific place: West 28th Street ...

composer who would become one of the most successful recording artists of the era.

Musical career

Reneau was born on May 18, 1902, in Dandridge, Jefferson County, Tennessee, between the

Cumberland Plateau The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms "Alle ...

and the

Smoky Mountains The Great Smoky Mountains (, ''Equa Dutsusdu Dodalv'') are a mountain range rising along the Tennessee–North Carolina border in the southeastern United States. They are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains, and form part of the Blue Ridge ...

on the state's eastern border with

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. While not much is known about his early life, Reneau is believed to have been born blind. At an early age, he attended the Nashville School for the Blind and eventually relocated from Dandridge to nearby

Knoxville Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state's ...

. Reneau, who began playing guitar and harmonica in his late teens or early 20s and later learned to play the

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

, became a street performer in the

Market House A market house is a covered space historically used as a marketplace to exchange goods and services such as provisions or livestock, sometimes combined with spaces for public or civic functions on the upper floors and often with a jail or lockup ...

area of the city's downtown. In early 1924, the manager of the

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

and record department in a Knoxville furniture store recommended Reneau to Vocalion Records, which was looking for new talent to record. Traveling to the company's studios in New York City several times over the next two years, Reneau recorded 50 songs for the label. While he was given solo credit on his Vocalion recordings, scholars later determined the vocalist on many of the releases was actually Gene Austin, since Reneau's harmonica playing can often be heard during the singing. By late 1925, when he recorded the last of his Vocalion releases, Reneau was doing all of his own singing. Over this period, he also re-recorded 10 of his songs for the Edison label as the Blue Ridge Duo with Austin as vocalist. After his contract with Vocalion ended, he teamed up with Lester McFarland, another blind musician from Knoxville and a championship

fiddler A fiddle is a Bow (music), bowed String instrument, string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including European classical music, classical music. Although in many ...

, and in 1927, the two recorded several sides for minor labels as the Gentry Brothers. Between recording sessions, Reneau continued to perform on the streets of Knoxville, supporting himself, his wife and two step-children. In the summer of 1925, he was arrested for violating the city's anti-begging law as well as for drunkenness. The latter charge was dismissed, and Reneau was found not guilty of begging by a magistrate who was sitting in for the regular judge. When the police arrested Reneau again for performing on the streets, the judge ruled in the musician's favor on the grounds he had not specifically asked for contributions from passers-by.

Final years

Reneau's recording career ended by his mid-20s, and over the next decade he eked out a living on Knoxville's streets. After contracting rheumatism in his arms, he was no longer able to play guitar or banjo, and in 1932, his brother-in-law, who was also blind, began accompanying him, playing guitar while Reneau sang along. By the late 1930s, Reneau's health had deteriorated further, and he died of pneumonia on June 5, 1938, at the age of 36.

Recordings

Following are all of Reneau's releases for the Vocalion label as well as his recordings on Edison with Gene Austin as the Blue Ridge Duo. Note that a few of Reneau's Vocalion recordings featured Tennessee champion fiddler "Uncle Am" Stuart. This listing does not include Reneau's releases for miscellaneous labels under various pseudonyms, nor does it cover his work with Lester McFarland.

Vocalion Records as solo artist

* '' Arkansaw Traveler'', 1924 * ''Bad Companions'', 1925 * ''Baggage Coach Ahead, The'', 1925 * ''Bald Headed End of the Broom'', 1924 * ''Birmingham'', 1924 * ''Blue Ridge Blues'', 1924 * ''C. & O. Wreck, The'', 1924 * ''

Casey Jones John Luther "Casey" Jones (March 14, 1863 – April 30, 1900) was an American railroader who was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi. Jones was a locomotive engineer for the Illinois Ce ...

'', 1924 * ''Fatal Wedding, The'', 1925 * ''Gambling on the Sabbath Day'', 1925 * ''Hand of Fate, The'', 1925 * ''Here, Rattler, Here (Calling the Dog)'', 1924 * ''I'm Glad My Wife's in Europe'', 1925 * ''I've Got the Railroad Blues'', 1924 * ''Jack and Joe'', 1925 * ''

Jesse James Jesse Woodson James (September 5, 1847April 3, 1882) was an American outlaw, bank and train robber, guerrilla and leader of the James–Younger Gang. Raised in the " Little Dixie" area of Western Missouri, James and his family maintained stro ...

'', 1924 * ''Letter Edged in Black, The'', 1925 * ''

Life's Railway to Heaven Charles Davis Tillman (March 20, 1861, Tallassee, Alabama – September 2, 1943, Atlanta, Georgia) —also known as Charlie D. Tillman, Charles Tillman, Charlie Tillman, and C. D. Tillman—was a popularizer of the gospel song. He had a knack ...

'', 1924 * ''Lightning Express, The'', 1925 * '' Little Brown Jug'', 1924 * ''Little Rosewood Casket'', 1925 * ''Lonesome Road Blues'', 1924 * ''Love Always Has Its Way'', 1925 * ''May I Sleep in Your Barn Tonight, Mister?'', 1925 * ''My Redeemer'', 1924 * '' New Market Wreck, The'', 1924 * ''Old Man on the Hill, The'', 1925 * ''Old Rugged Cross, Th''e 1925 * ''

On Top of Old Smoky "On Top of Old Smoky" (often spelled "Smokey") is a traditional folk music, folk song of the United States. As recorded by The Weavers, the song reached the pop music charts in 1951. It is catalogued as Roud Folk Song Index No. 414. History as ...

'', 1925 * ''Prisoner's Song, The'', 1925 * ''Railroad Lover'', 1925 * ''Red Wing'', 1924 * ''Rock All Our Babies to Sleep'', 1925 * ''Rovin' Gambler'', 1925 * '' Sinking of the Titanic, The'', 1925 * ''Smoky Mountain Blues'', 1924 * ''Softly and Tenderly'', 1925 * ''Susie Ann'', 1924 * ''

Turkey in the Straw "Turkey in the Straw" is an American folk song that first gained popularity in the 19th century. Early versions of the song were titled "Zip Coon", which were first published around 1834 and performed in minstrel shows, with different people c ...

'', 1924 * ''Two Orphans, The'', 1925 * ''Weeping Willow Tree, The'', 1925 * ''We're Floating Down The Stream Of Time'', 1925 * ''When I Shall Cross Over the Dark Rolling Tide'', 1925 * ''When the Work's All Done This Fall'', 1925 * ''When You and I Were Young, Maggie'', 1924 * ''Wild and Reckless Hobo'', 1925 * ''Wild Bill Jones'', 1925 * ''Woman"s Suffrage'', 1925 * '' Wreck of the Southern 97, The'', 1924 * ''You Will Never Miss Your Mother Until She Is Gone'', 1924

Edison Records as Blue Ridge Duo

* '' Arkansas Traveler'', 1924 * ''Blue Ridge Blues'', 1925 * ''

'', 1925 * '' Little Brown Jug'', 1924 * ''Lonesome Road Blues'', 1925 * ''

Sinking of the Titanic The sank in the early morning hours of 15 April 1912 in the North Atlantic Ocean, four days into her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. The largest ocean liner in service at the time, ''Titanic'' had an estimated 2,224 peo ...

'', 1926 * ''Susie Ann'', 1924 * ''Turkey in the Straw'', 1924 * ''Wreck of the C. & O.'', 1926 * ''You Will Never Miss Your Mother Until She Is Gone'', 1925

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reneau, George 1902 births 1938 deaths Musicians from Knoxville, Tennessee Country musicians from Tennessee American street performers Blind musicians 20th-century American singers American male guitarists American harmonica players American banjoists American blind people American musicians with disabilities