Jimmy Martin (1927 to 2005) was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for Bill Monroe from 1949 to 1954, with a short break in 1951. He then led Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys from 1955 until his death. He put six songs on the Billboard country chart between 1958 and 1973 and called himself the King of Bluegrass. The International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inducted him in 1995.
Why Martin matters
Martin made bluegrass rhythm guitar a lead job. He drove the band from the guitar with a hard, loud attack, and he demanded that his pickers play to that beat. His records with Monroe define the high lonesome sound. His Sunny Mountain Boys trained J.D. Crowe, Paul Williams, Bill Emerson, Alan Munde, and Doyle Lawson, and the trio singing on his Decca records is still the model for a bluegrass vocal stack.
Life and career
Martin was born on August 10, 1927, in Sneedville, Tennessee. His mother and stepfather sang gospel, and they were his first influences. In the winter of 1949 he went to Nashville to try out for Bill Monroe. He got backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, played guitar where Monroe could hear him, and got the job.
He sang lead with the Blue Grass Boys from 1949 to 1951 and again from 1952 to 1954, with a stretch in the Lonesome Pine Fiddlers in 1951. He recorded with Monroe for Decca from 1950 to 1954. After he left Monroe he worked with the Osborne Brothers from 1953 to 1955 and recorded with them for RCA.
Martin formed the Sunny Mountain Boys in 1955 and signed with Decca in 1956. He stayed with the label and its successor MCA until 1974. He played the Louisiana Hayride and the WWVA Jamboree in Wheeling, West Virginia. Rock Hearts charted in 1958, Widow Maker in 1964, and Tennessee in 1968. The 1960 album Good ‘n Country gave his sound its name. He sang and played on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken in 1972 and on its two sequels in 1989 and 2002.
The 2003 film King of Bluegrass told his story. Martin died of bladder cancer in Nashville on May 14, 2005, at age 77.
Playing style
Martin’s rhythm guitar is loud, hard, and right on the beat. His band did not float. It marched. On many Decca records he used a snare drum to hold the backbeat in place of the mandolin chop, and he called that groove Good ‘n Country. The guitar sits in front of the drum and pushes.
He claimed to have invented the G run. Recordings show Lester Flatt using it first, but Martin played it with more force, and he made it a fixed part of his band’s sound. His singing carries the same edge. He sang lead in a bright, cutting tenor that sat on top of the trio, and he held the tempo with his right hand while he did it.
Influences and legacy
Martin learned from gospel singing at home and from Bill Monroe on the job. His Decca records with Monroe from 1950 to 1954 fixed the high lonesome sound on tape. When Carter Stanley filled in with Monroe in 1951, he took Martin’s spot.
The Sunny Mountain Boys were a school. J.D. Crowe played banjo and sang baritone. Paul Williams played mandolin and sang tenor. Bill Emerson and Alan Munde played banjo, and Doyle Lawson passed through. Gloria Belle became the first woman to sing lead in a bluegrass band when she joined Martin. Crowe went on to lead the New South and hire Tony Rice.
Signature tunes and songs
Sunny Side of the Mountain Rock Hearts Widow Maker Tennessee Free Born Man.
Essential recordings
Good ‘n Country (Decca, 1960) Sunny Side of the Mountain (Decca, 1965) Big and Country Instrumentals (Decca, 1967) Will the Circle Be Unbroken, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (United Artists, 1972)
Awards and honors
International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (1995)
Watch and listen
Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys play the Fincastle festival in 1965. Watch how his guitar sets the tempo for the whole band.
Martin sings Sunny Side of the Mountain, the title song of his 1965 album.
What to learn from Martin
Learn Sunny Side of the Mountain. It is a three-chord song with a chorus built for a trio, so it works at any jam. The technique to steal is his drive. Play the bass note on the beat hard enough that the banjo player can feel it. Then play the G run at the end of the chorus, once, on time, and loud. Martin’s whole style comes down to that: the guitar is in charge of the tempo, and everyone else follows.
Sources
Jimmy Martin, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum Jimmy Martin, Britannica Jimmy Martin, Wikipedia
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more rhythm players. Lester Flatt held the Monroe lead singer job before Martin, and Carter Stanley filled it in 1951. Del McCoury took the same role a decade later. Tony Rice played with Martin’s former banjo player J.D. Crowe.