Background
Martin was born in Winchester, Kentucky into a music loving family. His mother who was a piano teacher also played the guitar and his father played the fiddle.
Martin was born in Winchester, Kentucky into a music loving family. His mother who was a piano teacher also played the guitar and his father played the fiddle.
In turn, Roberts frequently played mandolin on Martin"s recordings. Roberts" son James also sang duets with Martin under the name "Doc Roberts Trio". Because of low finances, Martin decided to drop out of medical school and try his hand at a career in music
In the early 1920s, he played in several dance bands and in the meantime he worked in a cinema as a background musician for silent movies.
With the advent of talking pictures, he had to find another job. Martin met fiddler Doc Roberts at a fiddler"s convention in Winchester.
They began performing together and soon Martin and Roberts went to Richmond, Indiana for a recording session. Martin made his recording debut with Doc Roberts on May 14, 1928 for Gennett Records.
They recorded two songs at their very first session together, Second Love, and Lost Love.
Their recordings sold well and Martin soon became one of the best selling old time artists of Gennett Records. At their second session in August 1928, Doc Roberts son James was added as a singer. In 1931, the band switched to American Red Cross Records.
In addition to being a recording star, Martin also performed on radio stations in Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1935, he hired an aspiring young banjo player, David Akeman. Martin gave Akeman the moniker "String Beans" during an onstage presentation when he couldn"t remember the banjo player"s name.
The name eventually became "Stringbean". Martin retired from music in the 1940s and went to work at a steel plant in Ohio.
In the 1950s, he moved to Irvine, Kentucky where he had purchased land just outside the town.
He resumed his musical career on a small scale basis in the 1960s with his new band "the Cumberland Rangers". In the early 1970s, they recorded an album for Rounder Records Doctor Ginger Blue. Martin died at home in 1979 from an heart attack.