Benny Edward Martin (May 8, 1928 – March 13, 2001), was an American bluegrass fiddler who invented the eight-string fiddle. Throughout his musical career he performed with artists such as the Bluegrass Boys, Don Reno, the Smoky Mountain Boys and Flatt and Scruggs, and later performed and recorded with the Stanley Brothers, Hylo Brown, Jimmy Martin, Johnnie and Jack, and the Stonemans, among others. He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2005.
Born in Sparta, Tennessee in White County, his father and two of his sisters played music professionally. From childhood, he learned the fiddle taught to him by Carl Alverson, Sr., of Sparta and ukulele, as well as the guitar and in his early teens left home to go to Nashville to pursue a full-time career as a country musician.
Martin was working at radio station WLAC in Nashville, Tennessee in 1948 when he was asked to replace Bill Monroe's fiddler Chubby Wise who was going to leave the Bluegrass Boys. In 1949, he became a member of Don Reno's Tennessee Cutups. For the next seventeen years, until December 1966, Don Reno and Martin performed on and off together. In 1950, Martin joined Roy Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys on the Grand Ole Opry, staying with the group until the fall of 1951.
During 1951, Martin appeared on all 20 songs at Roy Acuff's last three recording sessions for Columbia Records, playing fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and banjo. In 1952, he joined Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys cutting eight songs. On these recordings he played with a bluesy and jazzy flavour that complemented Scruggs' playing. Following a tenure with Johnnie and Jack and the Tennessee Mountain Boys, he returned to Monroe's Bluegrass Boys in 1959, but left within a year. In the 1960s, he toured once again with Roy Acuff and the Smoky Mountain Boys.
Martin was a member of Grand Ole Opry and had his own show, The Benny Martin Show. Over the years, Martin performed and recorded with many different artists. He recorded at least four singles one for Gulf Reef, "Thinking About Love" and "The Man Next Door" and three for Starday "Hello City Limits""I'll Never Get Over Loving You", "Pretty Girl""Dimes Worth of Dreams" and "You are the One" with his wife Joanne "No One But You." He hired Colonel Tom Parker as his manager and eventually would work as the opening act for some of the early Elvis Presley concerts.
Benny’s career was much less defined for the next three-and-a-half decades. He didn’t tour much and he admitted that his drinking and no-show reputation hurt him professionally. He did tour briefly with Lester Flatt in 1977, filling in for in for Paul Warren. With the help of Alcoholics Anonymous, he finally got his drinking under control and cited November 14, 1978 as the day he took his last drink.
When John Hartford moved back to Nashville in the 1970s he befriended his childhood idol Benny Martin. John was a major patron for Benny in the last decades of his life, arranging and producing recording sessions for him and promoting his legacy and prodigious talents, within a community and industry that looked upon Martin as a has been.
The 1970s were witness to a number of fine recordings. In contrast to his solo recordings of the 1950s, Martin’s new efforts saw his return to the fiddle. One of the first, and best, was a collection on Flying Fish (1975) called Tennessee Jubilee, with guest artists Lester Flatt, John Hartford, Curly Seckler, Kenny Ingram, Charlie Collins, and others. A series of albums and double-album sets followed on the CMH label from 1976 – 1979. Also recorded was one additional release for Flying Fish, Slumberin’ on the Cumberland (1979).
In 1980, Benny was diagnosed with Spasmodic Dysphonia, a “voice disorder characterized by involuntary movements of one or more muscles of the larynx during speech.” As Benny put it, it’s a “nerve disorder, or a dystonia, that gradually paralyzes the larynx.” It “destroyed” his singing and likely accounts for the dearth of new recordings from 1980 until 1999.
Benny finished his recording career with a pair of CDs that were issued in 1999 and 2001. Called The “Big Tiger” Roars Again, Parts 1 & 2 on OMS Records. Produced by Hugh Moore, the cream of contemporary Bluegrass and Country Music stars that contributed was impressive and included Vince Gill, Jerry Douglas, Ronnie McCoury, Ricky Scaggs, Terry Eldridge, Brian Sutton and Alison Krauss.
Martin died on March 13, 2001 in Nashville, Tennessee and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.
(Edited from Wikipedia & Bluegrass Hall Of Fame)