Benny Martin

Benny Edward Martin was born in Sparta, Tennessee on May 8, 1928. Born to a musical family, he began performing fiddle in his family’s band The Martin Family at the young age of 9. 

In 1948, when Martin was only 20, Bill Monroe asked him to join the Bluegrass Boys, a major incubator for bluegrass talents of the era. From there he played with legends Don Reno, Lester Flatt, and Earl Scruggs before embarking on a solo career and taking residence at The Grand Ole Opry. Throughout the 70s he frequently worked with John Hartford who was a major supporter of Martin at the time and who appears on the 1979 CMH album Big Daddy Of The Fiddle & Bow.

Over the course of his career he appeared on over 150 albums and released over a dozen of his own. CMH is proud home to four of those albums including The Fiddle Collection (1976), Turkey In The Grass (1977), Big Daddy Of The Fiddle & Bow (1979), and The Great American Fiddle Collection (1980). Each album showcases his unique talents as a fiddler while Turkey In The Grass uniquely gave a glimpse at his distinctive voice and knack for showmanship as an entertainer.

He is credited for inventing the eight-string fiddle and is known for his unique approach to soloing which featured heavy bow pressure, percussive syncopation, generous slides between notes, and frequent double-stops (playing multiple notes at once), all creating a loud, bombastic approach to the instrument.

Benny Martin passed in 2001 and was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Museum’s Hall of Fame in 2005.