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Grady Martin

Musician · b. 1929 · Chapel Hill, Tennessee
Best known for Guitar

Grady Martin was a cornerstone of the Nashville A-Team session corps from the late 1950s through the 1970s, the guitarist behind some of country and rockabilly's most familiar records and the accidental inventor of the fuzz-guitar tone.

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  • Born January 17, 1929 in Chapel Hill, Tennessee.
  • Played the Spanish-style nylon-string acoustic on Marty Robbins' 1959 hit "El Paso" and the lead on Robbins' "Don't Worry" (1961).
  • Credited with the accidental discovery of the fuzz guitar tone on "Don't Worry" when a faulty mixing-console channel distorted his six-string bass.
  • Session credits include Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman," Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Burnette, Brenda Lee, and Joan Baez.
  • Led his own combo, Grady Martin and the Slew Foot Five, recording instrumental albums for Decca.
  • Toured and recorded with Willie Nelson's band starting in 1978.
  • Died of a heart attack in Lewisburg, Tennessee on December 3, 2001; buried at Hopper Cemetery in Marshall County.
  • Inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame (2007), the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, and elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2015.

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