Big Daddy of the Fiddle & Bow is a two-LP set released in 1979 on CMH Records (CMH-9019), recorded at Hilltop Recording Studios in two groups of sessions: May 9 and 10, 1979, and July 5, 1979. Benny Martin, born in Sparta, Tennessee, produced it, with Jack Linneman producing and engineering, and Paul F. Wells wrote the liner notes. Martin played fiddle, a five-string fiddle and ukulele. In 1948 he was asked to replace Chubby Wise in Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys, and in 1952 he joined Flatt and Scruggs, and he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
Most of the tracks pair Martin with Joe Stuart on guitar, John Hartford on banjo, Bobby Osborne on mandolin, Roy Huskey Jr. on bass and Buddy Harman on drums. Hartford, who said he first heard Martin with Flatt and Scruggs in the early 1950s, played with him on several albums over the years. Six tracks instead use Osborne’s band: Wynn Osborne on banjo, Jimmy D. Brock on bass and Robby Osborne on drums, with Bobby Osborne on mandolin and harmony, and Bobby sings lead on “I’ll Go Steppin’ Too” and “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke.” The program mixes Martin’s own instrumentals, among them “Benny’s Waltz,” “Cruisin’ on the Blue Danube” and “Fiddler’s Birthday Party,” with “The Star Spangled Banner,” “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “Golden Slippers” and “God Bless America.”
Tracklist
- 1 The star spangled banner 2:58
- 2 I'll go steppin' too 2:23
- 3 Nobody's darlin' but mine 4:30
- 4 Benny's waltz 2:45
- 5 Feelin' good 2:20
- 6 East Nashville robbery 3:00
- 7 Will the Circle be Unbroken alt version 5:38
- 8 Beneath the old rugged cross 4:00
- 9 1814 3:38
- 10 Twinkle, twinkle little star 2:08
- 11 Cruisin' on the blue Danube 6:06
- 12 Dim Lights, Thick Smoke alt version 2:02
- 13 When I grow too old to dream 3:28
- 14 Fiddler's birthday party 3:02
- 15 Golden Slippers alt version 2:44
- 16 Whispering hope 4:22
- 17 Payday in the army 2:08
- 18 Canaan land (I'm on my way) 2:58
- 19 God bless America 2:51
