Not So Little Anymore

Ronnie Reno

But he was Little Ronnie Reno when he played in the Don Reno Band a half-century ago. Don was his legendary banjo-playing father, who -- with Red Smiley -- blazed the bluegrass trail in the 1950s and early 1960s with songs such as "I'm Using My Bible for a Roadmap" and "I'm the Talk of the Town."

Don died in 1984. With his two brothers, Ronnie formed the Reno Brothers to carry on the tradition with recordings such as Drawing from the Well. I remember seeing the brothers perform at Rockome Gardens in the mid-1990s.

Currently, Ronnie Reno & the Reno Tradition carry the torch. Ronnie also hosts Reno's Old-Time Music Festival on the BlueHighways television network. He came to Nashville in the mid-1960s, "about 50 years of just having a good time ... making a good living -- a clean living I might add -- and playing our music," he says.

March

Who is this bluegrass child prodigy?

This mandolin picker and singer is the son of a bluegrass pioneer. He was a musical prodigy, performing in his father's band when he was still so little he needed to stand on a milk crate to reach the microphone.

That was in the 1950s. Since then, he has performed and recorded with the likes of Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Mel Tillis, and the Osborne Brothers. In the 1990s, he formed a trio with his brothers, Dale and Don Wayne. Currently, he fronts his own band.

He is also involved in the BlueHighways TV network, which broadcasts bluegrass music all over America via satellite as well as on 25 cable networks.

Significant March dates in bluegrass history

• 3rd: Doc Watson was born (1923)
• 4th: John Duffey, of the Country Gentlemen and the Seldom Scene, was born (1934)
• 15th: Last public performance by Bill Monroe, Friday Night Opry, Nashville (1996)
• 16th: Tim O'Brien (1954) and Ronnie McCoury (1967) were born
• 19th: Randall Hylton died (2001)
• 23rd: David Grisman was born (1945)
• 28th: Earl Scruggs died (2012)
• 29th: Mike Lantz, mandolinist for Front Range, died (2006)