Grady Martin

Thomas Grady Martin (January 17, 1929 – December 3, 2001) was an American session guitarist in country music and rockabilly.

A member of The Nashville A-Team, he played guitar on hits such as Marty Robbins' "El Paso", Loretta Lynn's "Coal Miner's Daughter" and Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through the Night". During a nearly 50-year career, Martin backed many performers, among them, Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Johnny Burnette, Don Woody and Arlo Guthrie, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline and Bing Crosby. He is a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in March 2015.

Biography Grady Martin was born in Chapel Hill, Tennessee, United States. He grew up on a farm with his oldest sister, Lois, his older brothers, June and Bill, and his parents, Claude and Bessey. His mother played the piano and encouraged his musical talent. with Curly Fox and Texas Ruby in Chicago, Illinois.

That same year, he joined Paul Howard's Western swing-oriented Arkansas Cotton Pickers as half of Howard's twin guitar ensemble with Robert "Jabbo" Arrington and performed at the Grand Ole Opry. When Howard left, Opry newcomer Little Jimmy Dickens hired several former Cotton Pickers, including Martin, as his original Country Boys road band. In addition to backing mainstream acts like Bing Crosby and Burl Ives, they began to record in their own right, with later sessions under the name Grady Martin and his Winging Strings when he introduced his twin-neck Bigsby guitar. The band, with Hank Garland, Bob Moore, Tommy Jackson, and Bud Isaacs made regular appearances on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee in the mid-1950s.

The Nashville A-Team It was as a session musician starting in the late 1950s that Martin made his greatest mark on country and rockabilly music. His guitar work was also displayed in Johnny Horton's "The Battle of New Orleans" (1959) and "Honky Tonk Man" (1956), and especially his pure rockabilly sound on "I'm Coming Home" (1957). He shaped countless other classics, including Brenda Lee's "I'm Sorry", Willie Nelson's "On the Road Again", Ray Price's "For the Good Times", and Jeanne Pruett's "Satin Sheets".

Martin is credited with accidentally stumbling onto the electric guitar "fuzz" effect during a recording session with Robbins at Bradley Studios in Nashville; his six-string bass guitar was run through a faulty channel in a mixing console, generating the fuzz sound on "Don't Worry".

Later years In 1978, with his studio career over, Martin returned to the life of a touring musician, first with Jerry Reed and then as lead guitarist for Willie Nelson's band, appearing in Nelson's 1980 film Honeysuckle Rose. In 1994, deteriorating health forced him to retire, but he produced Nelson's 1995 honky tonk album, Just One Love.

The Nashville Entertainment Association gave him its first Master Award in 1983, and he was the 83rd inductee into the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. On April 5, 2000, he received a Chetty award for significant instrumental achievement at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium during the Chet Atkins Musician Days festival. Health problems prevented Martin from attending; Nelson, Vince Gill and Marty Stuart presented the award—named after Atkins, who attended—to Martin's son, Joshua. Grady Martin was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2007.

He was married three times and had three daughters, Alisa, Angie and Julie and seven sons, Grady Jr., Joe, Tal, Jason, Joshua, Justin and Steve.

Martin died from a heart attack on December 3, 2001, in Lewisburg, Tennessee, and is interred at Hopper Cemetery in Marshall County, Tennessee.

Selected discography Grady Martin and the Slew Foot Five Powerhouse Dance Party (Decca, 1956) Juke Box Jamboree (Decca, 1956) The Roaring Twenties (Decca, 1957) 'Johnny Burnette and The Rock and Roll Trio ' (1957 LP) - (July 5 session: long believed all to be by Paul Burlison) - Recorded at Quonset Studio, 16th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee, July 2–5, 1956; lp includes songs recorded in 1957, at Pythian Temple (New York City) Hot Time Tonight (Decca, 1959) Big City Lights (Decca, 1960) Swingin' Down the River (Decca, 1962) Songs Everybody Knows (Decca, 1964)

Grady Martin Instrumentally Yours (Decca, 1965) A Touch of Country (Decca, 1967) Cowboy Classics (Monument, 1977)

Slewfoot Five The Happy Sound of the Slewfoot Five (Decca, 1967) Man Alive! It's the Slew Foot Five (Decca, 1968)

As sideman

With Eric Andersen Blue River (Columbia Records, 1972)

With Hoyt Axton American Dreams (Global Records, 1984)

With Joan Baez Any Day Now (Vanguard Records, 1968) David's Album (Vanguard Records, 1969) One Day at a Time (Vanguard Records, 1970) Come from the Shadows (A&M Records, 1972) Where Are You Now, My Son? (A&M Records, 1973)

With JJ Cale Okie (Shelter Records, 1974)

With Don Everly Brother Jukebox (Hickory Records, 1977)

With Arlo Guthrie Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys (Reprise Records, 1973)

With Ronnie Hawkins Rock and Roll Resurrection (Monument Records, 1972) Giant of Rock 'n' Roll (Monument Records, 1974)

With Roy Orbison Regeneration (Monument Records, 1976)

With John Prine Sweet Revenge (Atlantic Records, 1973)

With Leon Russell Hank Wilson's Back Vol. I (Shelter Records, 1973)

With Buffy Sainte-Marie I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again (Vanguard, 1968)

With Kai Winding Modern Country (Verve, 1964)