American musician (1929?2001)
Grady Martin
|
---|
Martin in the 1950s
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Birth name
| Thomas Grady Martin
|
---|
Born
| (
1929-01-17
)
January 17, 1929
Chapel Hill, Tennessee
, U.S.
|
---|
Died
| December 3, 2001
(2001-12-03)
(aged 72)
Lewisburg, Tennessee
, U.S.
|
---|
Genres
| country music
,
rockabilly
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Occupation(s)
| guitarist
,
session musician
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---|
Instrument(s)
| guitar
,
fiddle
|
---|
Years active
| 1946–1994
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Labels
| Decca
,
Monument
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Musical artist
Thomas Grady Martin
(January 17, 1929 ? December 3, 2001)
[1]
was an American
session guitarist
in
country music
and
rockabilly
.
A member of
The Nashville A-Team
, he played guitar on hits such as
Marty Robbins
' "
El Paso
",
Loretta Lynn
's "
Coal Miner's Daughter
" and
Sammi Smith
's "
Help Me Make It Through the Night
".
[2]
During a nearly 50-year career, Martin backed such names as
Hank Williams
,
Elvis Presley
,
Buddy Holly
,
Johnny Burnette
,
Don Woody
and
Arlo Guthrie
,
Johnny Cash
,
Patsy Cline
and
Bing Crosby
. He is a member of the
Rockabilly Hall of Fame
and was elected to the
Country Music Hall of Fame
in March 2015.
Biography
[
edit
]
Grady Martin was born in
Chapel Hill, Tennessee
, United States.
[3]
He grew up on a farm with his oldest sister, Lois, his older brothers, June and Bill, and his parents, Claude and Bessey;
[4]
and had a horse he named Trigger. His mother played the piano and encouraged his musical talent.
[4]
At age 15, Martin was invited to perform regularly on
WLAC-AM
in
Nashville, Tennessee
, and made his recording debut two years later on February 15, 1946
[5]
with
Curly Fox
and
Texas Ruby
in
Chicago
,
Illinois
.
[6]
That same year, he joined Paul Howard's Western swing-oriented Arkansas Cotton Pickers as half of Howard's twin guitar ensemble with Robert "Jabbo" Arrington and performed on the
Grand Ole Opry
. When Howard left, Opry newcomer
Little Jimmy Dickens
hired several former Cotton Pickers, including Martin, as his original Country Boys road band.
[3]
He later joined Big Jeff Bess and the Radio Playboys followed by a stint with the Bailes Brothers Band.
By 1950, Martin was a part of the rising Nashville recording scene as a studio guitarist and fiddler, and his guitar hooks propelled
Red Foley
's "
Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy
" and "Birmingham Bounce".
[3]
In 1951, he signed with
Decca Records
with his own country-jazz band, Grady Martin and the Slew Foot Five.
[7]
In addition to backing mainstream acts like Bing Crosby and
Burl Ives
, they began to record in their own right, with later sessions under the name Grady Martin and his Winging Strings
[8]
when he introduced his twin-neck
Bigsby
guitar.
[9]
The band, with
Hank Garland
,
Bob Moore
,
Tommy Jackson
and
Bud Isaacs
made regular appearances on ABC-TV's
Ozark Jubilee
in the mid-1950s.
The Nashville A-Team
[
edit
]
It was as a session musician starting in the late 1950s that Martin made his greatest mark on country and rockabilly music.
[3]
As a guitarist with
The Nashville A-Team
, he provided the guitar on the Marty Robbins hits "
El Paso
" (1959) and "
Don't Worry
" (1961), on Roy Orbison's "
Oh, Pretty Woman
" (1964) and
Lefty Frizzell
's "
Saginaw, Michigan
" (1964).
[10]
His guitar work was also displayed in
Johnny Horton
's "
The Battle of New Orleans
" (1959) and "
Honky Tonk Man
" (1956), and especially his pure rockabilly sound on "
I'm Coming Home
" (1957). He shaped countless other classics, including
Brenda Lee
's "
I'm Sorry
",
Willie Nelson
's "
On the Road Again
",
Ray Price
's "
For the Good Times
" and
Jeanne Pruett
's "
Satin Sheets
".
Martin is credited with accidentally stumbling onto the
electric guitar
"
fuzz" effect
during a recording session with Robbins at
Bradley Studios
in Nashville; his guitar was run through a faulty channel in a
mixing console
, generating the fuzz sound on "Don't Worry".
[3]
In the 1960s, he played on sessions with
Joan Baez
,
J. J. Cale
and others, and played on
Sammi Smith
's 1971 hit, "
Help Me Make it Through the Night
", among the most successful country singles of all time. In the early 1970s, Martin played on many records by
Loretta Lynn
and
Conway Twitty
, worked with
Kris Kristofferson
and produced the country-rock band Brush Arbor.
With Patsy Cline
[
edit
]
Martin appeared on almost all of
Cline's
Decca
sessions, from August 1961 to her last session in February 1962, during which time he backed her on songs such as:
Later years
[
edit
]
In 1978, with his studio career over, Martin returned to the life of a touring musician, first with
Jerry Reed
and then as lead guitarist for Willie Nelson's band, appearing in Nelson's 1980 film
Honeysuckle Rose
. In 1994, deteriorating health forced him to retire, but he produced Nelson's 1995
honky tonk
album,
Just One Love
.
The Nashville Entertainment Association gave him its first Master Award in 1983, and he was the 83rd inductee into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. On April 5, 2000, he received a Chetty award for significant instrumental achievement at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium during the
Chet Atkins
Musician Days festival. Health problems prevented Martin from attending; Nelson,
Vince Gill
and
Marty Stuart
presented the award—named after Atkins, who attended—to Martin's son, Joshua. Grady Martin was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007.
He was married three times and had three daughters, Alisa, Angie and Julie; and seven sons, Grady Jr., Joe, Tal, Jason, Joshua, Justin and Steve.
Martin died from a heart attack on December 3, 2001, in
Lewisburg, Tennessee
, and was interred at Hopper Cemetery in
Marshall County, Tennessee
.
Selected discography
[
edit
]
Grady Martin and the Slew Foot Five
[
edit
]
- Powerhouse Dance Party
(Decca, 1956)
- Juke Box Jamboree
(Decca, 1956)
- The Roaring Twenties
(Decca, 1957)
- '
Johnny Burnette
and
The Rock and Roll Trio
' (1957 LP) - (July 5 session: long believed all to be by
Paul Burlison
) - Recorded at Quonset Studio, 16th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee, July 2?5, 1956; lp includes songs recorded in 1957, at
Pythian Temple (New York City)
- Hot Time Tonight
(Decca, 1959)
- Big City Lights
(Decca, 1960)
- Swingin' Down the River
(Decca, 1962)
- Songs Everybody Knows
(Decca, 1964)
Grady Martin
[
edit
]
- Instrumentally Yours
(Decca, 1965)
- A Touch of Country
(Decca, 1967)
- Cowboy Classics
(Decca, 1977)
- The Happy Sound of the Slewfoot Five
(Decca, 1967)
- Man Alive! It's the Slew Foot Five
(Decca, 1968)
As sideman
[
edit
]
With
Eric Andersen
With
Hoyt Axton
- American Dreams
(Global Records, 1984)
With
Joan Baez
With
J. J. Cale
- Okie
(Shelter Records, 1974)
With
Don Everly
- Brother Jukebox
(Hickory Records, 1977)
With
Arlo Guthrie
With
Ronnie Hawkins
- Rock and Roll Resurrection
(Monument Records, 1972)
- Giant of Rock 'n' Roll
(Monument Records, 1974)
With
Roy Orbison
With
John Prine
With
Leon Russell
With
Buffy Sainte-Marie
With
Kai Winding
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Grady Martin | Artist Bio"
.
Countryhalloffame.org
. Retrieved
August 8,
2021
.
- ^
Cooper, Peter "Grady Martin, Guitarist Who Did It all, Dies at 72" (December 4, 2001),
Nashville Tennessean
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Colin Larkin
, ed. (1993).
The Guinness Who's Who of Country Music
(First ed.).
Guinness Publishing
. p. 261.
ISBN
0-85112-726-6
.
- ^
a
b
Martin, Josh.
"Biography of Grady Martin"
.
Nashvillesound.net
. Retrieved
2009-04-09
.
- ^
Martin, Tal.
"Grady Martin"
.
Nashvillesound.net
. Retrieved
2009-04-09
.
- ^
Roland, Tom.
"Grady Martin"
.
Nashvillesound.net
. Retrieved
2009-04-09
.
- ^
"Independent Online obituary"
. Archived from
the original
on 2007-10-01
. Retrieved
2007-01-31
.
- ^
Wadey, Paul "Obituaries: Grady Martin'" (December 7, 2001),
The Independent
, p. 6
- ^
Jessen, Wade "Good Works 'A-Team' Sessionist Grady Martin Dies" (December 15, 2001)
Billboard
, p. 66
- ^
"CMT.com : Grady Martin : Biography"
. 20 June 2004. Archived from
the original
on 2004-06-20
. Retrieved
August 8,
2021
.
- ^
"Patsy Cline's Recording Sessions - The Decca Years"
.
Patsified.com
.
External links
[
edit
]
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International
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National
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Artists
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Other
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