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(Issue Date: December 3, 1998) The little-known--and little-appreciated--story of an early rockabilly queen By Randy Fox
In March of 1956, rockabilly looked to be the next big thing. A month
before, Sun Records had released Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes," and RCA
Victor followed that up with Elvis Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel." Now the
two records were chasing each other up the charts. RCA arguably had the top
male contender in the field, who was scandalizing and titillating audiences
with his pelvic gyrations. Now the label needed a female artist to promote.
RCA executive Steve Sholes soon found what he was looking for in
15-year-old Janis Martin. This Southerlin, Va., native sang with a force
and depth that often belied her young age--a trait that would mark the long
line of Nashville-based wunderkinder who followed her, from Brenda Lee to
Tanya Tucker to LeAnn Rimes. But the story of Martin's brief Nashville
career also explodes two myths propagated by 40 years of revisionist music
history. One, she might have been a teenage girl, but she could rock just
as hard as any of her male contemporaries; and two, her best records,
absolute classics, were recorded in Nashville--a town often portrayed as
having no understanding of rock 'n' roll. Forty years later, Martin's
records remain some of the most rockin', most thrilling hillbilly music
ever to emerge from the Music City.
By the time she hit Nashville, Martin was already a seven-year veteran
of the music business. "I had a typical show-business mother who put me in
the business when I was 8 years old," she recalls. "I never was allowed to
play with other children my age. She was grooming me."
Although the young Martin played largely country and bluegrass for
Virginia audiences, her first love was R&B. Indeed, at 13, she was
developing her own proto-rockabilly style on WRVA's Old Dominion Barn
Dance, which broadcast out of Richmond, Va. "The audience didn't know what
to make of it. They didn't hardly allow electric instruments, and I was
doing some songs by black artists--stuff like Ruth Brown's 'Mama, He Treats
Your Daughter Mean.' "
It was this style of music that Martin featured on the demo she sent to
RCA's Steve Sholes, who promptly signed her and set up her first recording
session with RCA's top man in Nashville, Chet Atkins. "Chet Atkins seemed
wide open to [rockabilly]. He told me it was the new music, the coming
thing. I thought I was cutting basically up-tempo country."
Rockabilly might have been the hot new thing, but Martin's first
session was attended by some of Nashville's most established session men,
including Grady Martin, Buddy Harman, and Floyd Cramer. The musicians
convened in the converted chapel on McGavock Street where Presley had
recorded "Heartbreak Hotel." "They made me feel right at home. I was
nervous and all. I just went in, and they played the demo tape I'd sent
down. They kicked it around and did their own arrangement. There was
nothing written out. Floyd Cramer and all of them were just old country
people like I was."
Martin's subsequent sessions for RCA were split between Nashville and
New York; she quickly learned that cutting records in the big city was an
entirely different story. "All those musicians up there had to have sheet
music; they seemed to act like it was just a job. [Guitarist] George Barnes
liked the music, and it showed. He really cooked. But otherwise, it was
kind of a cold atmosphere in New York."
The difference shows on the records too. While the sides cut in New
York contain a few classics such as "Barefoot Baby," Martin's hillbilly
soul shines through on the sides she cut in Nashville, especially "Love Me
to Pieces," the incredible "Bang, Bang," and the sublime "Blues Keep
Calling."
Capitalizing on Elvis Presley's success, RCA dubbed her "The Female
Elvis," a title that would come to haunt her. But at first, it helped sell
some records: Her first single, "Will You, Willyum" b/w "Drugstore Rock 'n'
Roll," sold over 750,000 copies. Appearances on the Grand Ole Opry,
American Bandstand, and The Tonight Show followed quickly,
and Billboard named her "Most Promising Female Vocalist for 1956."
Other successful singles followed, including a cover of Roy Orbison's "Ooby
Dooby," and (of course) a tribute to her labelmate, "My Boy Elvis."
Ironically, "The Female Elvis" only had two brief encounters with her
male counterpart. "I said hello to him backstage at a show in Danville,
Va., once," she recalls, "and later I ran into him in New York at RCA's
studio. He said, 'How's it goin'?' I said, 'Fine, how about you?' He said,
'It's rough!' That's about all the words we ever exchanged. To tell you the
truth, I wasn't all that impressed with Elvis at first. I've always liked
Carl Perkins better."
In fact, Martin says, she was never all that keen on being cast in
Presley's mold. "I think 'The Female Elvis' bit was a hindrance--the
audience expected a lot of hip gyrations like he did, and I got kind of
tired of being called vulgar. It put a lot of pressure on me."
Some people, it seemed, weren't ready for a female rock 'n' roller.
"About a year after I started recording for RCA, some of the established
country artists started fighting against rockabilly. Certain ones I went on
tour with were very unpleasant to me."
Beyond that, issues of marriage and motherhood created problems for
Martin that her male counterparts didn't have to deal with. A few weeks
before she signed with RCA, she had secretly married her boyfriend--an
ironic turn of events, given one of the songs she cut at that first
session.
"At the time I was recording 'Let's Elope, Baby,' my parents didn't
even know I was married. I had to chuckle to myself. It was strange. Chet
picked four songs for that session, and when he came up with that one, he
said, 'This will be perfect for you, because you're young, and kids run off
and get married.' "
Since her husband was in the army and had transferred to Europe shortly
after the wedding, Martin managed to keep her marriage secret for over a
year. But after a tour of Germany in the fall of 1957--and a brief reunion
with her spouse--she found herself pregnant. And that, it would have
seemed, was the end of her career.
"They had spent so much money and time and effort supporting a little
sweet-faced, pony-tailed girl, and all of a sudden this teenaged star they
had was a married woman expecting a baby. Steve Sholes tried putting me
into the pop field and tried to promote a more mature image. I wasn't
really that interested in it. I wanted to settle down and have my baby.
"I was eight months pregnant when I did my last session for RCA up in
New York, and Steve Sholes was standing in the control room bawling his
eyes out. He told my mother, 'She could have been as big as Elvis or
bigger.' "
But Martin never quite pulled away completely from music. In 1960, she
made a halfhearted return, cutting two singles for Palette Records at Owen
Bradley's studio. Then she disappeared for a time, resurfacing in 1973,
after she'd divorced for the second time. "When I got the band together in
the '70s," she remembers. "I realized it wasn't momma pushing me any
longer. I hadn't realized how much I missed it and loved it."
Still playing her mix of rock 'n' roll and country, she decided to
travel to Nashville and pay a visit to her old friend, Chet Atkins. "Chet
told me, 'Keep doing what you're doing, because this rockabilly revival is
hitting like the devil over in England.' "
Then, in 1979, the European tour offers started coming in. Martin still
remembers her incredulity: "I said, 'It can't be. It can't be.' " It took a
while for the singer to gather her nerve and return to the road, but three
years later, on her 42nd birthday, she played her first date in England. "I
can't begin to tell you what it was like--like stepping back in time," she
says. "Those kids dressed like we did in the '50s. Here I'd been a
housewife and a mother. When I hit the stage, it was like I'd come
home."
By the '70s, Martin's original 45s had become sought-after collectors'
items. Then, in the late '70s, the German reissue label Bear Family
collected all her RCA recordings onto two LPs. Now those recordings are
available, along with the four Palette sides, on one CD. With her music
back in print again, Martin has influenced a whole new generation of female
rockabillies, among them Rosie Flores. In fact, it was Flores who helped
reintroduce Martin to American audiences in 1996 with her Rockabilly
Filly album, which featured the two women singing a couple of duets.
Now in her late 50s, Janis Martin still loves performing, but her
priorities have shifted. She's settled down and content in Danville, Va.,
where she's the manager of a country club. "I could probably make a living
[touring]," she says. "But I have the best of both worlds. I've got a
career, I've got a happy life, and I realize that whatever I do now is
gravy.
"I've had a wonderful life. You'd be surprised at the letters and
inquiries I get from people all over the world. One day, not long after we
moved in the house we live in now, my mail carrier drove down here and
said, 'Just who the hell are you?' "
Martin says she plans to retire in four years--but that doesn't mean
she'd ever think of putting down her guitar for good. "We'll see what
happens when I have more time to play."
Rosie Flores, for one, would like to see her return to the studio. "I
would love to produce Janis Martin, put together the best band possible,
and bring her back out again. She sings so strong, it's incredible."
Martin's performances on the Rockabilly Filly album bear Flores out.
The duo's cover of "Blues Keep Calling" rivals Martin's original, the
maturity of her voice adding even greater depth to the world-weary
lyrics.
Only time will tell if "The Female Elvis" will decide to reclaim her
title. For now, she's scheduled to headline the Viva Las Vegas 2 rockabilly
festival next April in Las Vegas along with fellow rockabilly survivors
Sonny Burgess, Mac Curtis, and Curtis Gordon. Even after all these years,
she says, she still feels the excitement of being a musician--maybe more so
than before.
"When you come out on that stage, the love is incredible. I guess had
to become an old lady before I really appreciated it.
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