Bluegrass • The King of Bluegrass • Hard-Driving Lead
The self-proclaimed King of Bluegrass, whose powerhouse lead voice, impeccable timing, and "good 'n' country" drive set the standard for the music's golden age.
The Short Version
Who Was He?
Jimmy Martin (1927–2005) called himself the King of Bluegrass, and few who heard him would argue. A Tennessee singer and rhythm guitarist with a big, confident lead voice and an almost obsessive sense of timing, he made some of the hardest-driving bluegrass ever recorded, the kind of records that define the genre's golden age.
He learned his trade in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, where he is remembered as one of the greatest lead singers Monroe ever had, then led his own Sunny Mountain Boys for decades. That band became a finishing school for future stars, including the Osborne Brothers, J.D. Crowe, and Paul Williams.
The rhythm guitar that drove the hardest bands in bluegrass.From Sneedville to the King's Throne
The Story
His is a story of towering talent and a lifelong chip on the shoulder, a man who made undeniable music and never got the one honor he wanted most.
East Tennessee, the country he came from.
1949
The Blue Grass Boys
Jimmy Martin joined Bill Monroe's band and quickly became one of its most powerful lead singers, driving classic recordings across five years.
1955
The Sunny Mountain Boys
Martin struck out on his own, forming the band he would lead for the rest of his life and cutting a long run of hits for Decca.
1950s–60s
The finishing school
His demand for perfect timing made the Sunny Mountain Boys a proving ground; the Osborne Brothers, J.D. Crowe, and others came up through it.
1972
Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Martin featured prominently on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's landmark album, introducing him to a whole new rock-and-folk audience.
Lifelong
The Opry that never called
Despite his stature, Martin was never made a Grand Ole Opry member, a snub that wounded him deeply and that he never let anyone forget.
2005
The King passes
Jimmy Martin died in 2005, his reputation as one of bluegrass's greatest and most singular voices secure.
Three Recordings, One Introduction
Start Here
These three are the fastest way to hear the King: his theme song, a driving classic, and one of bluegrass's great heartbreakers.
01 · The Theme
"Sunny Side of the Mountain"
Martin's signature song, the drive and the voice that made him the King. Start here.
02 · The Driver
"Widow Maker"
A hard-charging trucker classic, the Sunny Mountain Boys at full throttle.
03 · The Heartbreaker
"Ocean of Diamonds"
A gorgeous ballad that shows the tenderness underneath all that power.
The Catalog
The Essential Records 4 to start with
Four records covering the overview, the free-born-man classics, the gospel, and the deep catalog.
Jimmy Martin's instrument was his voice, a big, ringing, absolutely confident lead that could cut through any band and land every word with total conviction. He did not have the eerie high-lonesome quality of Ralph Stanley or the smoothness of the Osbornes; what he had was authority. When Jimmy Martin sang a song, he owned it, and that certainty is a huge part of why his records still hit so hard.
Just as important was his fanatical attention to timing and drive. Martin drilled his bands relentlessly on where the beat sat and how the rhythm guitar pushed the music forward, and the result is some of the tightest, most propulsive bluegrass ever cut. Musicians who came through the Sunny Mountain Boys often said it was the hardest and most valuable education they ever got, which is why so many of them went on to lead important bands of their own.
The tragedy, and it genuinely was one, is that all that talent came wrapped in a difficult, boastful, hard-drinking personality that rubbed the Nashville establishment the wrong way. Martin lobbied openly for Grand Ole Opry membership his whole life and never got it, a wound that colored his later years. But the music is beyond dispute: for sheer power and drive, few bluegrass singers have ever matched the King.
The stage the King commanded for fifty years.The Roots of the Sound
Influences
Martin came straight out of the first generation of bluegrass, above all his years with Bill Monroe. These are the sources.
Father of Bluegrass
Bill Monroe
Martin's employer and teacher; he learned the music from the inside of the Blue Grass Boys.
Jimmy Martin sits at the hard-driving heart of classic bluegrass, connected to nearly everyone around him.
Bill Monroe: the band where Martin learned the music. See the guide.
The Osborne Brothers: who came up through the Sunny Mountain Boys. See the guide.
Flatt & Scruggs: the era's biggest act. See the guide.
The Stanley Brothers: the great traditional contemporaries. See the guide.
King of Bluegrass: The Life and Times of Jimmy Martin: the documentary is the definitive portrait.
The Way to Listen
Feel the drive. Martin obsessed over timing, and his records push forward with a relentless momentum that is the whole point. Turn it up and let it pull you along.
