Jimmy Martin

Martin was born in Sneedville, Tennessee, United States, 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. 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. 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. She toured Japan with Martin during 1975. 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." He performed on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1971 album Will the Circle Be Unbroken, 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 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. ==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 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 Singles Guest singles ==See also==