Grady Martin

Grady Martin

Thomas Grady Martin was born January 17 1929 in Chapel Hill, Tennessee.  At the age of fifteen in 1944 he performed regularly WLAC-AM out of Nashville Tennessee and made his first recordings on February 15 1946 with Curly Fox and Texas Ruby in Chicago, Illinois.  He went on to play on the road and in the studio with Little Jimmy Dickens as a part of the original lineup of Country Boys band.

Grady Second from left also in picture Little Jimmy Dickens and Hank Williams Sr.

Grady onstage with Hank Williams Sr. note Bigsby guitar and wide panel Fender Pro Amp

Grady with Red Foley

By the 1950s Martin had become a member of the studio musician clique known as the A-team and played wit artists such as Marty Robins {El Paso}, Elvis Presley {Devil in Disguise}, Johnny Horton {Im a Honkey Tonk Man}, Lefty Frizzle {Saginaw Michigan} and Brenda Lee {Rocking Around the Christmas Tree}.

Cool Guitar By Martin for Johnny Horton

Martin on Marty Robbins El Paso 1959

Martin on Marty Robbins Don't Worry 1961 Grady recorded this with a 6 string bass plugged into a faulty mixer channel in the studio. It is considered one of the first songs with fuzz tone. Martin did not like the sound by Robbin"s Producer left it on there anyway.

Martin Played the guitar part on Johnny Burnett's Lonesome Train.  It has been disputed many times but the tone is clearly martin and not Paul Burlison as he claimed but he used a Fender Telecaster and this song is clearly a Bigsby pickup 

Martin in the studio 1960s

Grady Playing on Little Brenda Lee's Begelow 6-200

Grady Martin Produced Hank Garland's Jazz Winds From A New Direction Album Photos Below

Double-neck Bigsby Guitar

 

Martin also had a single neck Bigsby guitar

In the mid to late 1970s Grady's session work slowed down and he started going on the road with Willie Nelson he did this until he retired because of fading health in 1994.  Martin died on December 3, 2001 and is buried at Hopper Cemetery in Marshall  County in Tennessee