Carl Martin

Carl Martin entered the world on April 1, 1906, near Stone Gap, Virginia. Although the mandolin served as his primary instrument, he achieved mastery on guitar and, according to eyewitnesses, handled any stringed instrument with equal fluency. Beyond his solo work, he devoted much of his professional life to a long-running trio alongside guitarist Ted Bogan and violinist Howard Armstrong. Over five decades the group performed under several names, among them the Four Keys, the Tennessee Chocolate Drops, and the Wandering Troubadours. Early on they roamed the South, appearing at medicine shows, county fairs, and radio broadcasts; when paid engagements proved scarce they busked for tips in neighborhood taverns. In the late 1930s the musicians joined the great migration northward to Chicago, where their paths eventually diverged, though they reconvened from time to time. Exposure to the city’s varied ethnic communities enriched Martin’s songbook with blues, jazz, pop, country, and selections in languages other than English. After years of independent performing, he rejoined Bogan and Armstrong in the early 1970s to tour the national folk and blues festival circuit. A handful of recordings still available document his trajectory from the 1930s through the final sessions before his death in Pontiac, Michigan, on May 10, 1979.