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((Short description|American bluegrass singer and musician (1927–2005)))
((other people))
((Use mdy dates|date=June 2018))
((more citations needed|date=March 2013))
((Infobox musical artist
| name             = Jimmy Martin
| image            = jimmy martin.jpg
| caption          = 
| image_size       = 
| background       = solo_singer
| birth_name       = James Henry Martin
| alias            = 
| birth_date       = ((birth date|1927|08|10))
| birth_place      = [[Sneedville, Tennessee]], U.S.
| death_date       = ((death date and age|2005|05|14|1927|08|10))
| death_place      = [[Nashville, Tennessee]], U.S.
| instrument       = Vocals, guitar, [[mandolin]]
| genre            = [[Bluegrass music|Bluegrass]]
| occupation       = Musician
| years_active     = 1949–2005
| label            = [[Decca Records|Decca]], [[Coral Records|Coral]], [[MCA Records|MCA]], [[Gusto Records|Gusto]]
| associated_acts  = [[Bill Monroe]]
| website          = 
))

'''James Henry Martin''' (August 10, 1927 – May 14, 2005) was an American [[bluegrass music|bluegrass]] singer and musician, known as the "King of Bluegrass".<ref name="CMT">((Cite web|url=http://www.cmt.com/news/1501851/king-of-bluegrass-jimmy-martin-dead-at-77/|title="King of Bluegrass" Jimmy Martin Dead at 77|first=Edward|last=Morris|website=CMT News|access-date=January 9, 2020))</ref>

==Early years==
Martin was born in [[Sneedville, Tennessee]], United States,<ref name="LarkinCountry">((cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who's Who of Country Music]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1993|edition=First|isbn=0-85112-726-6|page=261))</ref> and was raised in the hard farming life of rural [[East 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.

==Music career==
In the winter of 1949, [[Mac Wiseman]] had just left [[Bill Monroe]]'s Blue Grass Boys. Martin, who wanted to apply for the vacant post as guitarist, rode the bus into [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]]. He snuck in backstage at the [[Grand Ole Opry]]. While picking his guitar, he was overheard by the Blue Grass Boys' banjo player [[Rudy 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.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> 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 with [[Flatt and Scruggs]]. Martin challenged Monroe to raise the pitch on many of his classics and to write new, "lonesome" songs. This band with [[Rudy Lyle]] (banjo) and [[Charlie 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".<ref>((cite book |title= Bill Monroe: Bluegrass 1950–58 |last2= Wolfe|first2= Charles K.|last1= Rosenberg |first1= Neil V.|year= 1989|publisher= [[Bear Family Records]] GmbH |location= Holste-Oldendorf, Germany|isbn= 978-3-924787-13-4))</ref>

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 the [[Osborne Brothers]] until he formed his own band, The Sunny Mountain Boys, in 1955.<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> The classic line-up of this band, with [[J. 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 the [[Bluegrass music|bluegrass]] genre. However, aural evidence from the period before Martin began performing professionally, clearly shows [[Lester Flatt]] using this run when backing [[Bill 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. and [[Bill Emerson (musician)|Bill 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 instrumentalist [[Gloria Belle]], who is considered the first female lead singer in bluegrass.<ref>Goldsmith, Thomas. ''The Bluegrass Reader''. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004. p. 285.</ref><ref name="Artis, Bob 1975. p. 73">Artis, Bob. ''Bluegrass: from the lonesome wail of a mountain love song to the hammering drive of the Scruggs-style banjo, the story of an American musical tradition''. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1975. p. 73</ref>  She toured Japan with Martin during 1975.<ref name="gloriabelle2007">((cite web |url=http://www.gloriabelle.com/gbbio.html |title=TranAgent Company. "Bio." Gloria-Belle.com. 2007 |publisher=Gloriabelle.com |access-date=2011-09-30 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091221205141/http://www.gloriabelle.com/gbbio.html |archive-date=December 21, 2009 |df=mdy-all ))</ref> 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."<ref name="Artis, Bob 1975. p. 73"/>

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 the [[Louisiana Hayride]] and [[Wheeling, West Virginia]]'s [[WWVA Jamboree]] (renamed [[Jamboree 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.<ref>((Cite web|url=http://countrydiscography.blogspot.com/2011/07/bill-monroe-part-ii.html|title=Praguefrank's Country Music Discographies: Bill Monroe - part II|website=Countrydiscography.blogspot.com|date=July 4, 2011))</ref>

He performed on the [[Nitty Gritty Dirt Band]]'s 1971 album, ''[[Will the Circle Be Unbroken]],''<ref name="LarkinCountry"/> as well as Volume II (1989) and Volume III (2002).

He joined producers [[Randall Franks]] and [[Alan Autry]] for the ''[[In the Heat of the Night (TV Series)|In the Heat of the Night]]'' cast CD ''Christmas Time's A Comin''', performing "Christmas Time's A Comin'" with the cast on the CD released on Sonlite and MGM/UA.

==Death==
Martin died in Nashville on May 14, 2005, after having been diagnosed with [[bladder cancer]] more than a year earlier.<ref name="CMT"/> He is interred in the [[Spring Hill Cemetery (Nashville)|Spring Hill Cemetery]] in Nashville's [[Madison, Tennessee|Madison]] neighborhood. A report of his death in the ''Toronto Star'' called him "one of the greatest vocalists in bluegrass."<ref>"Bluegrass legend Jimmy Martin plucked at 77", ''Toronto Daily Star'', May 17, 2005</ref>

==Legacy==
In 1995, Martin was inducted into the [[International 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 film ''High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music''.

Martin's hobby was [[coon hunting|raccoon 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 by [[Tom Russell]] on ''The Wounded Heart of America'' album.

==Discography==
===Albums===
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Album
! width="45"| <small>[[Hot Country Songs|US Country]]</small>
! Label
|-
| 1960
| ''Good 'n Country''
| align="center"| —
| rowspan="11"| Decca
|-
| 1962
| ''Country Music Time''
| align="center"| —
|-
| 1963
| ''This World Is Not My Home''
| align="center"| —
|-
| 1964
| ''Widow Maker''
| align="center"| —
|-
| 1965
| ''Sunny Side of the Mountain''
| align="center"| —
|-
| 1966
| ''Good 'n Country Music''
| align="center"| —
|-
| 1967
| ''Big and Country Instrumentals''
| align="center"| —
|-
| 1968
| ''Tennessee''
| align="center"| 42
|-
| 1969
| ''Free Born Man''
| align="center"| —
|-
| 1970
| ''Singing All Day''
| align="center"| —
|-
| 1972
| ''I'd Like to Be Sixteen Again''
| align="center"| —
|-
| 1973
| ''Moonshine Hollow''
| align="center"| —
| Coral
|-
| 1974
| ''Fly Me to Frisco''
| align="center"| —
| MCA
|-
| 1978
| ''Greatest Bluegrass Hits''
| align="center"| —
| rowspan="6"| Gusto
|-
| rowspan="4"| 1980
| ''Will the Circle Be Unbroken''
| align="center"| —
|-
| ''Me'n Old Pete''
| align="center"| —
|-
| ''To Mother at Christmas''
| align="center"| —
|-
| ''First Time Together'' <small>(with [[Ralph Stanley]])</small>
| align="center"| —
|-
| 1982
| ''One Woman Man''
| align="center"| —
|}

===Singles===
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Single
! width="45"| <small>[[Hot Country Songs|US Country]]</small>
! Album
|-
| 1958
| "Rock Hearts"
| align="center"| 14
| single only
|-
| 1959
| "Night"
| align="center"| 26
| ''Good'n Country''
|-
| 1964
| "Widow Maker"
| align="center"| 19
| ''Widow Maker''
|-
| 1966
| "I Can't Quit Cigarettes"
| align="center"| 49
| ''Good'n Country Music''
|-
| 1968
| "Tennessee"
| align="center"| 72
| ''Tennessee''
|}

===Guest singles===
{| class="wikitable"
! Year
! Single
! Artist
! width="45"| <small>US Country</small>
! Album
|-
| 1973
| "Grand Ole Opry Song"
| [[Nitty Gritty Dirt Band]]
| align="center"| 97
| ''[[Will the Circle Be Unbroken]]''
|}

==See also==
*[[Thomas Edd Mayfield]]

==References==
((Reflist))

==External links==
*[http://www.ibiblio.org/hillwilliam/BGdiscography/?svalue=Jimmy+Martin&stype=band&v=sresults Discography] at Discography of Bluegrass Sound Recordings
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070810041937/http://slipcue.com/music/country/countryartists/jimmymartin.html And yet another Discography]; 
*[https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history/jimmy-martin Jimmy Martin Interview] at [[NAMM Oral History Program|NAMM Oral History Collection]] (July 22, 2004)
 
((Authority control))

((DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Jimmy))
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2005 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Hancock County, Tennessee]]
[[Category:Deaths from bladder cancer in the United States]]
[[Category:American male singer-songwriters]]
[[Category:Bluegrass musicians from Tennessee]]
[[Category:American country singer-songwriters]]
[[Category:King Records artists]]
[[Category:RCA Victor artists]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in Tennessee]]
[[Category:Country musicians from Tennessee]]
[[Category:Music of East Tennessee]]
[[Category:Musicians from Appalachia]]
[[Category:Burials in Tennessee]]
[[Category:20th-century American singer-songwriters]]
[[Category:Singer-songwriters from Tennessee]]
[[Category:20th-century American male singers]]

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