 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Jimmy Martin" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(March 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Jimmy Martin | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | James Henry Martin (1927-08-10)August 10, 1927 Sneedville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Died | May 14, 2005(2005-05-14) (aged 77) Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Genres | Bluegrass |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar,mandolin |
| Years active | 1949–2005 |
| Labels | Decca,Coral,MCA,Gusto |
James Henry Martin (August 10, 1927 – May 14, 2005) was an Americanbluegrass singer and musician, known as the "King of Bluegrass".[1]
Martin was born inSneedville, Tennessee, United States,[2] and was raised in the hard farming life of ruralEast Tennessee. He grew up near Sneedville, singing in church and with friends from surrounding farms. His mother and stepfather who used to sing gospel were his first influences. When he was in his teens he played guitar in a local string band and later appeared on radio with Tex Climer and the Blue Band Coffee Boys.
In the winter of 1949,Mac Wiseman had just leftBill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys. Martin, who wanted to apply for the vacant post as guitarist, rode the bus intoNashville. He snuck in backstage at theGrand Ole Opry. While picking his guitar, he was overheard by the Blue Grass Boys' banjo playerRudy Lyle, who brought him forward and presented him to Monroe. Martin sang two songs with Monroe and was hired.
Beginning in 1949, Martin was lead vocalist for Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys.[2] Martin's high voice mixed with Monroe's tenor came to be known as the "high lonesome" sound. His influence radically changed Monroe's music from the fast-paced but smooth style of the "original" 1945 band withFlatt and Scruggs. Martin challenged Monroe to raise the pitch on many of his classics and to write new, "lonesome" songs. This band withRudy Lyle (banjo) andCharlie Cline (fiddle) was one of the many high points of Monroe's career. Martin's lead was defining in "lonesome" songs such as "Sitting Alone in the Moonlight", "Memories of Mother and Dad" and "I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome".[3]
Martin had a famously high-strung and exuberant personality, and inevitably clashed with Monroe's equally stubborn temperament. He left Monroe and worked briefly with theOsborne Brothers until he formed his own band, The Sunny Mountain Boys, in 1955.[2] The classic line-up of this band, withJ. D. Crowe and"Big" Paul Williams (stage name for Paul Humphrey), defined his "Good 'n Country" style, a commercially oriented, crowd-pleasing bluegrass with simple harmonies, catchy melodies, and a strong rhythm propelled by Martin's effective guitar playing. He credited himself with inventing the "G" run, a guitar lick used widely in thebluegrass genre. However, aural evidence from the period before Martin began performing professionally, clearly showsLester Flatt using this run when backingBill Monroe.
Three important components of Martin's unique sound, besides his cutting tenor voice, were tight trio singing, sometimes a female high-baritone fourth part, and the use of a snare drum in place of mandolin to keep the back-beat.
Among Martin's biggest hits of the 1960s were "Hit Parade of Love", "Sophronie", "Stepping Stones", "Tennessee", and "Widow Maker" (a popular truck driver's song). His instrumentals (with the Sunny Mountain Boys), such as "Theme Time", "Bear Tracks" and "Red Rooster", featured ultra-crisp playing by a series of banjo players including Sam "Porky" Hutchins, J.D. Crowe, Vernon McIntyre Jr. andBill Emerson, and, powered by Martin's guitar runs, set a standard for bluegrass instrumentals that was influential.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys included singer and instrumentalistGloria Belle, who is considered the first female lead singer in bluegrass.[4][5] She toured Japan with Martin during 1975.[6] In regards to her playing, Martin said jokingly, "She's not very good, but we let her sing with us 'cause we feel sorry for her."[5]
Martin was famous as a dangerously unpredictable, but highly entertaining stage presence. He freely acknowledged his problems with drinking and volatile mood swings, which kept him from realizing his lifelong dream of joining the Grand Ole Opry.
He made frequent appearances on theLouisiana Hayride andWheeling, West Virginia'sWWVA Jamboree (renamedJamboree U.S.A. in the 1960s), as well as the Grand Ole Opry, but was never invited to join the latter. In 1973, he performed on Bill Monroe's Brown County Jamboree.[7]
He performed on theNitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1971 album,Will the Circle Be Unbroken,[2] as well as Volume II (1989) and Volume III (2002).
He joined producersRandall Franks andAlan Autry for theIn the Heat of the Night cast CDChristmas Time's A Comin', performing "Christmas Time's A Comin'" with the cast on the CD released on Sonlite and MGM/UA.
Martin died in Nashville on May 14, 2005, after having been diagnosed withbladder cancer more than a year earlier.[1] He is interred in theSpring Hill Cemetery in Nashville'sMadison neighborhood. A report of his death in theToronto Star called him "one of the greatest vocalists in bluegrass."[8]
In 1995, Martin was inducted into theInternational Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor. A documentary on his life,King of Bluegrass: The Life and Times of Jimmy Martin, was released in 2003. Martin is also featured in the documentary filmHigh Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music.
Martin's hobby wasraccoon hunting with dogs; he featured his hunting dogs on the covers of several LP albums and wrote songs celebrating their prowess. His troubles with the Nashville music industry are memorialized in "The Death of Jimmy Martin", a song byTom Russell onThe Wounded Heart of America album.
| Year | Album | US Country | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Good 'n Country | — | Decca |
| 1962 | Country Music Time | — | |
| 1963 | This World Is Not My Home | — | |
| 1964 | Widow Maker | — | |
| 1965 | Sunny Side of the Mountain | — | |
| 1966 | Good 'n Country Music | — | |
| 1967 | Big and Country Instrumentals | — | |
| 1968 | Tennessee | 42 | |
| 1969 | Free Born Man | — | |
| 1970 | Singing All Day | — | |
| 1972 | I'd Like to Be Sixteen Again | — | |
| 1973 | Moonshine Hollow | — | Coral |
| 1974 | Fly Me to Frisco | — | MCA |
| 1978 | Greatest Bluegrass Hits | — | Gusto |
| 1980 | Will the Circle Be Unbroken | — | |
| Me'n Old Pete | — | ||
| To Mother at Christmas | — | ||
| First Time Together(withRalph Stanley) | — | ||
| 1982 | One Woman Man | — |
| Year | Single | US Country | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1958 | "Rock Hearts" | 14 | single only |
| 1959 | "Night" | 26 | Good'n Country |
| 1964 | "Widow Maker" | 19 | Widow Maker |
| 1966 | "I Can't Quit Cigarettes" | 49 | Good'n Country Music |
| 1968 | "Tennessee" | 72 | Tennessee |
| Year | Single | Artist | US Country | Album |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | "Grand Ole Opry Song" | Nitty Gritty Dirt Band | 97 | Will the Circle Be Unbroken |
