Benny Martin (1928 to 2001) was a bluegrass and country fiddler from Sparta, Tennessee. He played with Bill Monroe, Roy Acuff, and Flatt and Scruggs before he turned 27. His fiddle on the Foggy Mountain Boys records of 1952 to 1954 set a standard for drive and emotion that bluegrass fiddlers still chase. He invented the eight-string fiddle, and the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inducted him in 2005.
Why Martin matters
Martin played the fiddle like a singer with something to prove. He pushed the beat, leaned on the bow, and stacked double stops until a single fiddle sounded like two. John Hartford said Martin’s playing opened up a whole new world of how the fiddle should go, and Hartford spent decades trying to play like him. Michael Cleveland, the most awarded fiddler in IBMA history, still records tunes Martin started. If you want to know why bluegrass fiddle sounds aggressive, start here.
Life and career
Benjamin Edward Martin was born on May 8, 1928, in Sparta, Tennessee, into a family of performers. He got a fiddle at age six or seven and was playing in the family band by age eight or nine. Local fiddlers Carl Orvison and Louis Armstrong of Sparta gave him his first lessons, and he named Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and Clayton McMichen as early influences. He moved to Nashville in his early teens to work in music full time.
His first professional jobs came fast. He played with Wally Fowler and the Oak Ridge Boys in 1944 and 1945 and with Big Jeff and the Radio Playboys in 1945 and 1946. His first record, Me and My Fiddle, came out in 1946 on the Pioneer label. He joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1947 and stayed into 1948, then moved to Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain Boys from 1949 to 1951. He played on all 20 songs from Acuff’s last three Columbia sessions.
In 1952 Martin joined Lester Flatt, Earl Scruggs, and the Foggy Mountain Boys. The records he made with them through 1954 are his most famous work. He left for Johnnie and Jack and the Tennessee Mountain Boys in 1954, then went solo in 1955 with his own Benny Martin Band. Colonel Tom Parker managed him for a time, and Martin opened for Elvis Presley about 50 times in 1955 and 1956. He recorded for MGM, Mercury, RCA, Decca, Starday, and CMH. His album Country Music’s Sensational Entertainer came out on Starday in 1961, and he had chart singles with Rosebuds and You in 1963 and Soldier’s Prayer in Viet Nam in 1966. He worked with Don Reno in 1965 and later rejoined Flatt in the Nashville Grass in 1977.
Martin got sober on November 14, 1978. In 1980 doctors diagnosed him with spasmodic dysphonia, a disorder of the larynx that took away his singing voice and pushed him into a long retirement. John Hartford, his lifelong fan, brought him back into the studio. Hartford had played on Martin’s Tennessee Jubilee for Flying Fish in 1975, and in 1999 Martin recorded The Big Tiger Roars Again for OMS Records with Vince Gill, Jerry Douglas, Ronnie McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, Bryan Sutton, and Alison Krauss. A second volume followed in 2001. He died of congestive heart failure in Nashville on March 13, 2001, at age 72.
Playing style
Martin’s sound starts with pressure. He bore down on the bow and pulled a big, dark tone that could cut through Scruggs’s banjo. He used accents and slides to push the beat a hair ahead, which gave everything he played a sense of urgency. Hartford said Martin put as much emotion into music as any human being he had heard.
The second mark is his double stops. Martin leaned on two strings at once, and he chose the notes with a singer’s ear for harmony. Hartford described the result as lush chords and slides. Compare his double stops with those of Dale Potter and Bobby Hicks, the other great double-stop players of his era.
The eight-string fiddle was his own invention. He recorded under the name Benny Martin and His 8 String Fiddle, and a 1966 festival film shows him playing the instrument on stage.
Influences and legacy
Martin grew up on Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and Clayton McMichen. He replaced Chubby Wise in Monroe’s band. In the Foggy Mountain Boys he held the fiddle chair before Paul Warren, and his 1950s records with Flatt and Scruggs gave the band its early fiddle sound.
John Hartford is his most famous student. Hartford heard Martin with Flatt and Scruggs as a teenager, tried to copy his style with the help of local fiddler Gene Goforth, and later put Martin on his Flying Fish records. Michael Cleveland still records tunes Martin originated. For the session side of Nashville fiddle in the same years, hear Tommy Jackson.
Signature tunes and songs
Me and My Fiddle Rosebuds and You Katy Hill Wabash Cannonball Torch of Love.
Essential recordings
Country Music’s Sensational Entertainer (Starday, 1961) Old Time Fiddlin’ and Singin’ (Mercury Wing, 1964) Tennessee Jubilee (Flying Fish, 1975) The Fiddle Collection (CMH, 1976) The Big Tiger Roars Again, Part 1 (OMS, 1999)
Awards and honors
IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award (1997) IBMA Liner Notes of the Year, The Big Tiger Roars Again (2000) Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2005)
Watch and listen
Martin plays Me and My Fiddle on his eight-string fiddle at the Roanoke bluegrass festival in 1966. Listen to how the extra strings ring.
Martin, John Hartford, and bassist Roy Huskey play Wabash Cannonball. Watch how hard he leans on the bow.
What to learn from Martin
Learn Katy Hill and play it with the Flatt and Scruggs records from 1952 to 1954 in your ear. The technique to steal is his bow pressure. Most learners play soft and fast. Martin played loud and on top of the beat. Take a tune you know at half speed and dig in until the tone gets rough, then back off just enough to clean it up. Add a double stop on the last note of each phrase. That is the sound that lets one fiddle carry a band with a banjo in it.
Sources
Benjamin Edward “Benny” Martin, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Benny Martin, IBMA award recipients John Cowan Hartford, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Benny Martin, Wikipedia Benny Martin, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more. Martin followed Chubby Wise in Monroe’s band and came before Paul Warren with Flatt and Scruggs. Bobby Hicks carried his double stops forward, and Michael Cleveland keeps his tunes alive today.