Don't Give Your Heart to a Rambler: My Life with Jimmy Martin, the King of Bluegrass (Music in American Life) - Softcover

Stephens, Barbara Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0252082761 ISBN 13: 9780252082764

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2017

Synopsis

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 marriage, 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 your Heart to a Rambler is a woman's story of the world of bluegrass and one of its most colorful, conflicted artists.

About this title

Review

"Set in the heyday of bluegrass and country music, Don't Give Your Heart to a Rambler is filled with famous names . . . and sparkles with the excitement of those times."--Bookreporter.com

"For anyone who has ever yearned to know more about the man behind the boisterous King of Bluegrass personality, Don't Give Your Heart to a Rambler should certainly offer an intriguing perspective."--Bluegrass Today

"[Don't Give your Heart to a Rambler] stands as a testament to survival, the will to persist, and the importance of choices in forging a life."--Ted Lehman's Bluegrass, Books, and Brainstorms

"A rare insider's view of Nashville's music scene and of how life with a famous bluegrass musician used to be, this account also gives a good impression of what social roles women were expected to fulfill, no matter how their husbands acted."--popcultureshelf
 

"Don't Give Your Heart to a Rambler offers a fascinating look into the world of bluegrass during the 1950s and 60s." --Bluegrass Breakdown
"I've often said I wanted to know more about  performers lives, with all their warts showing. Barbara Martin Stephens has achieved that for Jimmy Martin. Human beings are complex. Our stories are never simple, and she has written her story, revealing a life and keeping it true."--No Depression

From the Author

Barbara Martin Stephens worked for many years as a booking agent and promoter, first for Jimmy Martin and then for numerous other bluegrass and country music performers.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0252082761
• ISBN 13: 9780252082764
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240