Grady Martin
Thomas Grady Martin ( born January 17, 1929 in Chapel Hill, Tennessee; † December 3, 2001 in Lewisburg, Tennessee ) was an American country and rockabilly guitarist. Martin is one of the best known and most successful session musician Nashville. He was the Nashville A-Team, a group of extremely active and sought-after studio musician attributed.
- 2.1 Singles
- 2.2 albums
Life
Childhood and youth
Grady Martin was born in 1929 near the small town of Lewisburg, Tennessee. Martin was the youngest child of a farming family and learned from his mother to play the piano. Later he also learned from its big brother guitar and fiddle playing. At 15, Martin was a member of Big Jeff Bess ' band and the Bailes Brothers joined two years later.
Career
At age 17, Martin was heard for the first time as a member of the backing band of Curly Fox and Texas Ruby on a record. During this time he began playing with guitarist Jabbo Arrington as a guitar duo and accompanied Little Jimmy Dickens.
From the end of 1949, Martin was active as a session musician for a big star of country music for the first time. He played on Red Foley's largest Millionenseller Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy guitar, resulting in a commitment as a guitarist for Foley's band, his recordings and in Foley's show, the Ozark Jubilee, led. From 1952, Martin played almost exclusively guitar and rose to become one of the most sought after studio musicians Nashville. Along with other musicians such as Bob Moore, Hank Garland and Buddy Harman he can be heard on countless recordings and was used by producer Chet Atkins exclusively as a guitarist. Martin can be heard among other recordings by Hank Locklin, The Browns, Patsy Cline, Red Foley and many others. In addition, Martin member of the Grand Ole Opry had become.
Starting in 1956, the " rockabilly boom " and Martin expanded his repertoire as a professional studio musician. He played in these years on recordings of many popular rockabilly musicians such as Buddy Holly, Johnny Horton, the Collins Kids, Brenda Lee, Ronnie Self, Don Woody, Johnny Carroll, Bobby Lord, Onie Wheeler and Dorsey Burnette next as second guitarist for Johnny Burnette Trio. Since 1951, Martin led his own band, the Slewfoot Five. Despite a record contract with Decca Records and countless singles, it was never enough for the charts and Martins own songs remained largely unknown.
1959 Martin played for Marty Robbins on his single El Paso spanish guitar and accompanied Robbins on the following album. He also worked with the Canadian Western musicians Montana Slim.
The 1960s and 1970s spent Martin continued with his work as a session musician. Stars like Roy Orbison, Lefty Frizzell, Hank Snow, Ernest Tubb, Conway Twitty, Loretta Lynn, Elvis Presley, Tommy Collins and Little Jimmy Dickens took his talent to complete. He also rose as a producer for Monument Records in the record shop. From 1978, Martin joined Jerry Reed's band and eventually returned as live musicians back to the stage. His last professional years in the music business in Willie Nelson's Martin spent backing band.
In the 1990s his health began to deteriorate and Martin moved back to his hometown, where he died in 2001.
Discography
Singles
Almost all Decca singles were recorded with the Slewfoot Five.