She’s Left Me Again · Hold Watcha Got

Jimmy Martin (1927–2005) grew up near Sneedville, Tennessee, and joined Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys as lead singer in 1949. He made his first records outside Monroe’s band in the early 1950s. On 6 August 1950, at Castle Studio in Nashville, he sang baritone and played guitar with the Shenandoah Valley Trio for Columbia. On 27 August 1951, at King’s studio in Cincinnati, he recorded duets with Bobby Osborne, among them “My Lovely Heart” and “She’s Just a Cute Thing,” with Charlie Cline on banjo and Curly Ray Cline on fiddle. On 16 November 1954 he recorded for RCA Victor as Jimmy Martin and the Osborne Brothers, with Steve Sholes producing. RCA issued three singles from that session, the first being “20-20 Vision” in December 1954.

Martin formed the Sunny Mountain Boys in 1955, and Decca signed him the next year. His first Decca session, on 9 May 1956, was at Bradley’s studio on 16th Avenue South in Nashville, with Paul Cohen producing. Porky Hutchins played banjo and sang baritone, and Earl Taylor played mandolin and sang tenor. It produced “Hit Parade of Love” and “You’ll Be a Lost Ball,” issued together that November. J. D. Crowe recorded with Martin from late 1956 to 1960, usually on banjo and baritone, and from February 1958 Paul Williams was on mandolin and tenor. Williams’s first session, on 19 February 1958, gave Decca “Ocean of Diamonds” with “Sophronie,” and “Rock Hearts,” which reached number 14 on the country chart. Owen Bradley produced Martin’s Decca records from November 1958 to the last session in 1974, and many of them add a snare drum.

From 1962 the sessions moved to the Columbia Recording Studio, at the same 16th Avenue address. Bill Emerson played banjo there in 1962. “Widow Maker,” recorded on 17 September 1963 with Crowe back on banjo, Grady Martin on guitar and Tater Tate on fiddle, reached number 19 in 1964. Later that year Mike Miller was on banjo and Vernon Derrick on mandolin. From November 1966 Martin recorded at Bradley’s Barn in Mount Juliet, where he cut “Free Born Man” in July 1968 with Chris Warner on banjo and Williams back on mandolin. The Decca and MCA singles ran until 1975. Between 1978 and 1980 he re-recorded older material at Gusto’s studio on Dickerson Road in Nashville, and Gusto issued some of it as singles in 1981, including new versions of “Widow Maker” and “20/20 Vision.”

He appeared often on the Louisiana Hayride, the WWVA Jamboree and the Grand Ole Opry, but was never invited to join the Opry. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1995.

Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.