Joseph Floyd Edge was known professionally as Don Dudley. He was a songwriter, a producer, a disk jockey, and a musician. He produced country, rock and roll, gospel, and soul records. He also played a foundational role in the early days of Mark V Studios.
The United House of Prayer for All People brings believers into worshipful accord with a completely unique style of music. GMP went to church one Sunday to meet Elder Mitchell Dillard and learn about the church and its influence on one of Greenville’s most accomplished musicians, Mitchell’s brother Moses Dillard.
GMP goes inside Greenville’s Sound of the South studio to see how country pickers and the classically trained came together to make this studio a commercial powerhouse, with a band that changed the sound of southern gospel music.
Darryl Massey and his piano
playing buddy Joe Hill still get together to play the country and gospel tunes they have polished to a mirror shine over decades; Merle, Buck, Don Gibson and a bunch by Mr. Massey himself. On an autumn evening, they invited GMP to Mr. Hill’s home in Easley, SC to listen to them play and chuckle over tour stories, old songs and anything else that came up. We left the tape running and let the two old pickers go. Here’s what we picked up.
Greenville Music Preservation works to collect, archive, and present the music history of Greenville, SC – revealing and celebrating our community’s unique cultural identity.