Fiddler,Benny Martin,R.I.P.

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

Thought maybe some of you older forumites,who remember Benny, might like to read this.
I met Benny in '58 & somewhere in my pic collection,I have one of me w/ Benny & "Little" Roy Wiggins.
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Fiddler Supreme Benny Martin Dead at 72
By Edward Morris

Fabled fiddler Benny Martin died Tuesday night (March 13) at a Nashville-area hospital of causes not yet announced. He was 72 and had been suffering from a variety of illnesses, including a nerve disorder that affected both his voice and his eyes. Martin wrote of his medical problems -- including his long bout with alcoholism -- in the liner notes to his 1999 album The Big Tiger Roars Again, Part 1.

Benjamin Edward Martin was born May 28, 1928, in Sparta, Tenn. One of his childhood friends was Flatt & Scruggs founder Lester Flatt. Martin's father, George Robert Martin, played guitar and led the part-time musical group the Martin Family. It included Benny (on fiddle) and the older two of his four sisters. He was "8 or 9 years old," he recalled, when he made his radio debut with his family, playing on The Upper Cumberland Jamboree, a weekly radio show in Cookeville, Tenn. At 12, he hitchhiked to Knoxville to play on WNOX's The Mid-Day Merry Go Round.

In 1941, Martin moved to Nashville to work with Big Jeff Bess and the Radio Playboys on station WLAC. He remained with the group for most of '40s, also moonlighting as a studio musician. During this period he recorded on Pioneer Records, a tiny Nashville label, "Me and My Fiddle," the tune that became his signature song.

Martin made his Grand Ole Opry debut in 1946, playing with the blackface act Jam Up & Honey. The next year, he began touring as a member of Red Foley's band. On the side, he played sessions for such acts as Foley, Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe. Martin became a member of Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1947 and stayed with him into the following year. In 1949, he played and recorded with Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys. Afterward, he joined Flatt and Earl Scruggs' new band, the Foggy Mountain Boys. Due to Martin's drinking, it was not an entirely happy union. He said Flatt often fired him and bailed him out of jail but that he stayed with the band on and off until 1953. (Martin ultimately quit drinking alcohol in 1978.)

Through the recommendation of his friend Hank Williams and William's producer, Fred Rose, Martin signed as a solo act to MGM Records. MGM released two singles on Martin in 1953, neither of which charted. Later that same year, he moved to Mercury Records. During 1954-55, he toured with Kitty Wells' and Johnnie & Jack's band. He also played the Grand Ole Opry in the mid-1950s as a solo act.

Although Mercury released several singles on Martin, none charted, nor did the ones he subsequently recorded for RCA and Decca. It was on his Decca recordings, however, that he introduced his musical refinement, the eight-string fiddle. In 1961, Starday Records released Martin's first album, Benny Martin: Country Music's Sensational Entertainer. Finally, in 1963, Martin made the singles charts with his Starday recording, "Rosebuds and You." He would chart only one more -- "Soldier's Prayer in Viet Nam" -- in 1966 on Monument Records, with Don Reno & The Tennessee Cut Ups.

Even as he faded from mainstream country, Martin continued as a presence in bluegrass music. He recorded albums for CMH Records, notably the two-record sets The Fiddle Collection in 1977 and Big Daddy of the Fiddle & Bow (with Bobby Osborne and John Hartford) in 1979. Martin's last album, The Big Tiger Roars Again, Part 1, on OMS Records, featured as guest artists Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Scruggs, Tom T. Hall, Hartford, Jim & Jesse McReynolds, Buck White, Del McCoury, Crystal Gayle, Bobby Osborne, Johnny Russell and others.

Martin is survived by a son and two daughters.

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Jim Roby · From: Amory, Ms. usa

Hey Smiley I remember Benny, yes he was a great fiddler and singer, sure sorry to hear he is gone. How have you been?
Later
Jim R

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Thanks for the (sad) notice. I remember meeting him when I worked at Little Roy's music store. Is Gene Martin (who worked at Grammer Guitar and Sho-Bud) his brother?

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

Jack,
Yes,he was. They are,now,"re-united".

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Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Sorry to hear about Benny, I mainly knew of him through the bluegrass recordings he had done.

Tom Olson · From: Spokane, WA

Was it Benny who played on the Flatt & Scruggs album, "Foggy Mountain Banjo?" I have that album, which has some fantastic fiddle breaks on it, but it doesn't list any credits for the musicians.

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Tom, I'm not sure if I know that album, but if it's a Columbia one, it's most likely that it's Paul Warren on fiddle.
Paul came in some time in the 1950s and then went with Flatt in 1969.
I think the album is from the early 1960s, and it's the one where that they pull out a few folkie tunes as they were really aiming for the College circuit at that point.

A good example from this ear is the Vanderbilt University live album, later when Flatt & Scrugs split and Earl had the Earl Scruggs Revue, he took that group to the same Colleges and University gigs, playing to another generation of fans.

Tom Olson · From: Spokane, WA

Hi Jason,

I don't know exactly when this album came out. All I know is that it's a reissue by Sony and it was originally a CBS release. It's all Bluegrass tunes, no folk, and all instrumentals, no singing at all. It's got quite a few classic tunes on it, like, Reuben, Fireball Mail, Cripple Creek, Lonesome Road Blues, John Henry, Sally Goodwin, and Cumberland Gap. It's a great album for hearing instrumental Bluegrass. I know that Buck Graves is on it because his Dobro playing is unmistakable (besides, I think he's the only one who played Dobro w/ Flatt&Scruugs). But I'm not that knowledgable about fiddle.

Smiley Roberts · From: Hendersonville,Tn. 37075

Tom,
I'm inclined to agree w/ Jason on this one. Paul Warren.
BTW,I went to the funeral home last night,to pay my respects. It looked like a "Bluegrass Reunion".Present were Sonny Osborne,Jimmy Martin,John Hartford,Eddie Stubbs,Ray Kirkland,etc. It was a "closed-casket".
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[This message was edited by Smiley Roberts on 16 March 2001 at 11:24 PM.]

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Tom with Cripple Creek, Lonesome Road Blues, John Henry and Sally Goodwin, you've got some songs that preceed bluegrass, so the folkies could accept that.
Bluegrass had a pretty good following in one sense, but it never really translated into sales after the mid 1950s, you could blame Elvis, but George Jones, Ray Price and others made the sound less appealing to country fans.

Anyway, from memory that's probably one of their early 1960s albums reissued, actually I just had a look. It's originally from 1961, with dobroist Josh Graves, Paul Warren and session drummer Buddy Harman, although they'd been adding drums to their sound as early as 1959.
Apparently Uncle Josh Grave originally joined as a bassist, and it was when they heard him practicing his dobro playing they decided to mess with the Bluegrass 'formula' in the mid 1950s.
Of course drums and twin fiddles and other studio tricks were used by various bluegrass acts in the late 1950s, evolution you might say.

Bill Cunningham · From: Atlanta, Ga. USA

Check out Benny's late 70's Flying Fish album, Tennessee Jubilee. Its an all star bluegrass cast with non other than Buddy Emmons on dobro and a great Merle Travis style steel solo on "Its A Good Enough Reason To Be In Love With You"

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Carter D-10 8+9, BCT, TPPP

Tom Olson · From: Spokane, WA

I've always considered anything by Flatt&Scruggs (since the time they started in the 40's) to be Bluegrass music. I guess maybe Bluegrass can have different definitions. I've always thought that the "father" of Bluegrass was Bill Monroe, from which Both Flatt & Scruggs were "born" so-to-speak.

Now, when you're talking about some of the "newer" styles which started popping up in the late 60's (Earl Scruggs Review), I've always thought that was "newgrass."

Anyway, I don't remember hearing drums on either of my two Flatt&Scruggs CD's (Foggy Mountain Banjo and Foggy Mountain Jamboree), but I'll have to go back and listen again -- maybe I missed the drums.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

It it's "Bill Monroe Bluegrass" there won't be any drums, amplified instruments, the guitar play must play a Martin Guitar, etc.

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Actually Tom, I might be mistaken about the drums, it was after all an attempt to capture the college folk crowd's attention.
If there's any drum's it's very minimal like a touch of brush and snare to accentuate the rhythm.
Jimmy Martin favoured a very basic stand up drummer in the late 1950s, and right through most of his career. While Flatt & Scruggs used a drummer on some late 1950s sessions, but I don't think they had one live.

Bill Monroe's classic Blue Grass Boys did of course includ Flatt & Scruggs, both of which helped define the band stye which would be copied to the point of evolving into the Bluegrass style in the late 1940s-early 1950s.
Sure all of Flatt & Scruggs recording are bluegrass style, but they did aim at specific markets, like the folk boom in the early 1960s, and even rock and folk rock in the late 1960s. They had about four guitarists in the final days, plus fuzz guitar, drums, keyboards and harmonica featured on some sessions through 1967-1969.. but, sure they were Bluegrass all the same.

Newgrass is a term I really like, there was a slew of younger bands that pushed the newer style, which ranged from the influence of Texas fiddle style, performing rock songs bluegrass style, or performing bluegrass material rocked up, or adding modern studio techniques and electric instruments onstage and in the studio.
Earl definately was a Newgrass performer, while Flatt's group, which formed in 1969, was basically a throw back to the mid 1950s Flatt & Scruggs sound with the dobro, mandolin, banjo, fiddle, bass and guitar.
Bill Monroe never added a dobro to his sound, he stuck with the standard mandolin, banjo, fiddle, bass and guitar..although he would allow other fiddlers onstage and didn't mind a mandolin duet with the likes of Davis Grisman when the chance arose.

Like Jack wrote, with "Bill Monroe Bluegrass there won't be any drums, (or)amplified instruments."

On another note, Flatt & Scruggs got rid of the mandolin in their sound in 1962, right through to the end in 1969.

Back to the main topic.. Benny Martin appeared on some of the finest Bluegrass sides recorded ever, just pure bluegrass heaven. The early Flatt & Scruggs Foggy Mountain Boys were a powerful driving group, with a lot more punch than Monroe's group.

[This message was edited by Jason Odd on 18 March 2001 at 07:32 AM.]

Tom Olson · From: Spokane, WA

Regarding Buck "Uncle Josh" Graves, I understand that before he actually joined Flatt & Scruggs, Buck would get Earl to teach Buck Earl's 3-finger style of banjo-playing -- only Buck, of course, played it on the Dobro. So, in this respect, Buck was sort of a pioneer on the Dobro because prior to him, the Dobro was never really played with the 3-finger banjo roll style the Buck perfected.

I don't know if I'm correct on this, but I think I heard somewhere one of the big reasons that Earl really encouraged Buck to play the Dobro (rather than bass) with the group because Bill Monroe had always refused to allow a Dobro in his group. That way, w/ a Dobro, Flatt&Scruggs' sound would be very distinguishable from that of Monroe's group.

Although I don't have any of Flatt&Scruggs' later albums, I can see from the song lists that they really did play a lot of more modern material in the latter days. I think I read that this was one of the reasons for the eventual split between the two -- Flatt wanted to stick to the more traditional stuff, whereas Scruggs wanted to branch out and play the more non-traditional stuff.

Bill Cunningham · From: Atlanta, Ga. USA

I don't think I've ever heard drums on a F&S cut; but to my ear one of their defining sounds was that in addition to the open chord Martin rhythm guitar of Lester, they also had Johnny Johnson playing bar chords or "slap rhythm" on the big old Gibson L5.

In fact that guitar is with Johnny's brother who lives in the Atlanta area!

Bill C.

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Carter D-10 8+9, BCT, TPPP

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