“Rock Hearts” is a bluegrass song credited to the songwriter Bill Otis. It was introduced on record in 1958 by Jimmy Martin and the Sunny Mountain Boys.
The lyric turns on the song’s central image — hearts turned to stone, hardened by heartbreak so that they can no longer feel or love. That stark figure of emotional numbness, set against Jimmy Martin’s hard-driving, confident sound, gave the song a memorable bite.
“Rock Hearts” settled in as a bluegrass standard. It was revived for a later generation by the Bluegrass Album Band, the all-star group whose recordings of traditional material reintroduced songs like this.
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