Shannon Grayson

A bright music ray from the city of Sunlight, NC, this banjoist recorded under his own name both for a number of historical regional bluegrass brands, so when a sideman about a large number of sides by organizations like the Carlisles, performing both banjo and mandolin. He started picking the previous axe as a boy, and the current presence of Snuffy Jenkins like a neighbor predictably resulted in musical impact on an enormous scale out of this old-time tale. Grayson began appropriately using the Carlisles combo, beneath the leadership from the brothers Expenses and Louis Carlisle. At this time, the banjoist was between 18 and 19 yrs . old, and a flavor from the music existence was enough to create him ditch his work in the mills. Through the 1930s with the ’50s, he performed just about full-time, an excellent six years of this using the Carlisles. He was centered from Charlotte you should definitely touring, where he worked well locally using the Briarhoppers, an old-time string music group and mainstream bluegrass clothing. With this lineup, he transmit over NEW YORK stations such as for example WBT. For 3 years, his participation with this group also resulted in touring along the East Coastline, from Washington to Florida. Occasionally the demand was so excellent because of this group, among night clubs and radio, that this group members pass on themselves out between two satellite television versions from the rings, each packed in by hired-gun pickers. “You couldn’t inform one from your other barely. It took nearly an expert to inform one from your additional,” Grayson stated an interview, tossing down a gauntlet for bluegrass punters. Another aspect to this musician was his comic abilities, leading to the chance that the prior comment was a jest. At the very least, Grayson was an associate from the hillbilly humor group Scorching Shot Elmer’s Family members, which would perform barefoot, bedraggled, and fundamentally berserk. The antics of the group were evidently a favorite diversion to get a lunchtime group that captured their noon-time broadcast over WNOX in Knoxville. Grayson led and documented using the Golden Valley Guys in the first ’50s, delivering a repertoire of mainly gospel amounts with several scorching banjo instrumentals tossed in. It had been an attempt to create a new music group sound merging a vocal quartet using a string music group, and left out one especially startling tune, “UNLESS YOU Appreciate Your Neighbor.” Within a genre that’s too easily stereotyped to be reactionary and zealously fundamentalist Christian, this tune packs a topical ointment punch as solid as Billy Bragg at his most fiery, and it is a highlight from the bluegrass-gospel repertoire. People of the Golden Valley Guys included the wonderful mandolinist Millard Presley, along with the abilities of Dewey Cost on both tenor vocals and tempo electric guitar. Unlike many sets of this era, the Golden Valley Guys stayed from regular radio series sponsorships and continued to be an appeal at special displays, frequently merging with the favorite, early country vocalist Carl Story. A complete of eight produces lower for the well-distributed RCA, in addition to another four for the Ruler outfit, led to regular gigs on offer, and apparently a good livelihood for the players and their bandleader. The introduction of the jukebox was also a significant new method a band’s record got around, and there have been few jukeboxes around Appalachia that didn’t possess among Grayson’s singles onto it. The achievement appears to have frightened the banjoist into considering he would drop connection with his family members due to touring, therefore he jumped from the music business and became a cupboard maker from the ’60s. Staying an lover, he was a encounter in the target audience that could be described by those in the understand in a Charlotte-area bluegrass sow.