Don't give your heart to a rambler : my life with Jimmy Martin, the king of bluegrass / Barbara Martin Stephens ; foreword by Murphy Hicks Henry.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stephens, Barbara Martin, author.

Series:

Music in American life

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Stephens, Barbara Martin.

Martin, Jimmy.

Concert agents--United States--Biography.

Concert agents.

Bluegrass musicians--United States--Biography.

Bluegrass musicians.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xvi, 200 pages, 14 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2017]

Summary:

As charismatic and gifted as he was volatile, Jimmy Martin recorded dozens of bluegrass classics and co-invented the high lonesome sound. Barbara Martin Stephens became involved with the King of Bluegrass at age seventeen. Don't Give your Heart to a Rambler tells the story of their often tumultuous life together. Barbara bore his children and took on a crucial job as his booking agent when the agent he was using failed to obtain show dates for the group. Female booking agents were non-existent at that time but she persevered and went on to become the first female booking agent on Music Row. She also endured years of physical and emotional abuse at Martin's hands. With courage and candor, Barbara tells of the suffering and traces the hard-won personal growth she found inside motherhood and her work. Her vivid account of Martin's explosive personality and torment over his exclusion from the Grand Ole Opry fill in the missing details on a career renowned for being stormy. Yet Barbara also shares her own journey, one of good humor and proud achievements, and filled with fond and funny recollections of the music legends and ordinary people she met, befriended, and represented along the way. Straightforward and honest, Don't Give Rambler is a woman's story of the world of bluegrass and one of its most colorful, conflicted artists. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Meeting Jimmy Martin 13

2 Moving On 22

3 Having Babies 33

4 Back and Forth 46

5 Up and Down 57

6 Booking Jimmy Martin 69

7 Funerals 89

8 Living with Jimmy Martin 91

9 Showers and Surprises 101

10 Goodbye 116

11 Life after Jimmy Martin 132

12 All My Children 143

13 Life in Florida and the Kids Return 148

14 Letting Go of Jimmy Martin 160

15 Through It All, No Regrets 172

16 Jimmy Martin's Family 185.

Notes:

Includes index.

Other Format:

Online version: Stephens, Barbara Martin. Don't give your heart to a rambler.

ISBN:

9780252082764

0252082761

OCLC:

972200746