Biography
Although unrelated to the famed "King of Rock & Roll," mandolinist and bandleader Millard Presley contributed his own chapter to Tennessee's musical legacy. His work unfolded on the state's eastern flank among the Appalachians instead of in Memphis, which helps account for his focus on old-time music and gospel over rock or rockabilly styles. Active during the same period when independent regional labels were testing new sounds alongside early rockabilly artists, Presley occasionally appears on compilations devoted to that scene as well. What sets this Presley apart historically is less his own conventional rural gospel recordings than his supporting role on the edges of bluegrass as the genre took shape. He performed with banjoist Shannon Grayson's ensemble, whose lineup also featured rhythm guitarist Dewey Price. Known as the Golden Valley Boys, the group recorded eight widely promoted and distributed sides for RCA plus additional tracks for King, a catalog that continues to draw scrutiny from early country and rockabilly researchers. Within that ensemble Presley's instrumental and vocal skills faced particular demands, since Grayson had assembled the unit as a forward-thinking, higher-investment fusion of two already popular formats: the harmony vocal quartet and the old-time string band. Because Presley handled the upper-register mandolin while delivering the baritone part in the vocal blend, his contributions created intricate layering on their own. Leading Millard Presley & the Presleys, he produced gospel material for the Blue Hen label in 1957; those same recordings later found their way onto high-energy rockabilly anthologies.