Excellence in multiple genres has led to spot in Kentucky Music Hall of Fame

By John Herndon, KentuckySings.com

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — If you are talking about Kentucky music, somewhere along the line you have to talk about Paul Martin.

If you know the history of the local rock music scene around Lexington, you have to know Paul from his days in Charlie’s Garage and The Bunch. You might even know about Ambush, a local band Paul joined while attending George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester. 

You may know about Paul gaining a reputation as somewhat of a musical prodigy, getting his start as an eight-year-old drummer in his parents’ country band.

If you have followed country music over the last 40 years, you know that Paul Martin has made a name for himself most notably as guitarist and vocalist for Exile and later as bassist for Marty Stuart and his Fabulous Superlatives. Along the way there have also been stints with Billy Joe Royal, Kathy Mattea and The Oak Ridge Boys.

And if you are a gospel music fan, you have probably seen Paul Martin and his family on some Gaither Homecoming videos along with various productions of Larry Black of Larry’s Country Diner.

And, finally, if you are a fair or festival fan, chances are you have seen Paul Martin’s family group, Rockland Road. Brought together as the Martin Family Circus, the group makes its way across America with a program performing all of the above, but with the goal of pointing people to Jesus.

From Aug. 15-17, Rockland Road performed three shows daily at the Kentucky State Fair, then on Aug. 18, the group sang the National Anthem and God Bless the USA prior to the Oak Ridge Boys and Country Gold concert at the fair.

On Oct. 26 as Paul Martin will join 10 others in the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame Class of 2024.

He learned of his induction on live radio as he appeared on WSM radio’s “Coffee, Country and Cody” earlier this year. Also on the program was Hall of Fame Executive Director Jessica Blankenship. 

Paul had no idea, even though he has been the music director for almost every Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony since 2004. He was unaware of a concerted effort to keep the real reason for his appearance on the show a secret.

When Blankenship announced that Paul would be inducted, the gregarious Martin was overwhelmed and at a loss for words.

“It was a surreal moment just to hear my name,” Martin said when we caught up with him in his Hendersonville studio earlier this summer. “I had to think about it. What am I going to say? What am I going to do? It’s such an honor to be recognized by your peers in your home state. It’s just very humbling.”

And it’s also bittersweet.

Upon induction, Martin will join his mother-in-law, longtime gospel singer and Grand Ole Opry backup vocalist Norah Lee Allen, as members of the Hall. Mrs. Allen was a part of the Hall of Fame Class of 2022 but passed away on Easter Sunday after a battle with cancer.

Paul says his mother-in-law knew he was going to join her in the hall of Fame. “She texted me right after the announcement,” he recalled as he pulled up the text message on his phone. “She said, ‘Paul, I want to pass on congratulations to my fellow Kentucky Hall of Famer. This is so deserved. I am proud of you. Kentucky Strong. Love, NL.'”

And it is bittersweet as the ones who gave Paul a start in music won’t be there. His father, Bill Martin, passed away 21 years ago and his mother, Texas Martin, passed away in 1989. She was able to see her son with Exile, but the band’s first hit with Paul singing lead, “Keep It In the Middle of the Road,” was released a few months after her death. Paul recalls a memorable concert.

Exile was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2013, but Paul was not part of the group that was inducted.

But now, October 26 will bring another milestone in what has been an illustrious musical career for one who lets his joy show through his music.

As a teen, Paul, on guitar, joined a friend, who was playing drums, in an audition for a high school talent show. They sang the Doobie Brothers’ “Long Train Running.” Some members of the local band, Ambush, heard them and after a night of jamming in the studio, asked Paul to join.

It started a career that wound through a Top 40 cover band to the Lexington-based Charlie’s Garage, founded by Charlie Crowe, who would later go on to stardom as part of Brooks & Dunn’s band. 

“We played some Top 40, whatever was on the radio at the time. And we played some Van Halen and Sammy Hagar. We played some original stuff,” Paul says. “When I joined Charlie’s Garage, I had lost my confidence as a singer. Charlie Really pushed me. He made me sing. He made me learn four or five songs for every night where I was the lead singer. Charlie was my first big cheerleader.”

Eventually Charlie’s Garage disbanded and Paul played for a country band, Muddy Creek, and a rock band, The Bunch, along with any other gigs he could get.

One night, playing at Breedings, a Lexington club, Paul was playing keyboard for an Elvis impersonator with country singer Billy Joe Royal looking on. Royal liked what he saw and asked Paul to join his band. 

About a year later, Paul got a phone call asking if he would be interested in filling an opening in the Exile lineup. “I said, ‘Of course I would.'”

That was in 1988 and Paul stayed until the band members decided to go their separate ways in the mid-1990s.

Paul embarked on a short-lived solo career and spent some time as a member of Kathy Mattea’s band and even had that short tenure as baritone for the Oak Ridge Boys in 1995. He joined the Mighty Oaks Band on a permanent basis in 1998, but Paul had been part of the Oaks’ family before that.

He’d started dating Jamie Allen, daughter of Oak Ridge Boys’ lead singer, Duane Allen, in 1991. Four years later, the couple were married.

Paul stayed with the Mighty Oaks Band four years before deciding to come off the road to play Mr. Mom while Jamie was growing in a highly successful corporate career.

In 2008, Marty Stuart called to see if Paul would be available to play a weekend with him as he was without a bass guitar player. “I picked up a CD at the office and learned what I could,” Martin remembered. “We did the first show and when we walked off the stage, they were smiling at me so I thought, ‘They must like what I do.’ So we did a second show and they said, ‘Hey why don’t you do the Opry with us next weekend.’

“So I did the Opry and they said, ‘Why don’t you join the band, so I joined the Superlatives.”

After seven years, though, Paul decided he had to fulfill the dream of his family touring together. They’d already been singing together since their children were small and had been dubbed the Martin Family Circus by Vince Gill. Eventually, the family changed the name of the band to “Rockland Road,” a nod to Duane’s old studio location and the name of a 1970s album by the Oaks Band.

The family is special as Paul says Jamie Martin is who pointed him to a real relationship with Jesus. Rockland Road seeks to point people to Christ with a positive, family-friendly show that includes music by artists as varied as the Beach Boys to Linda Ronstadt to the Oak Ridge Boys.

And they always perform some songs from southern gospel, contemporary Christian or old spirituals. All are selected to shine a light.

“I don’t know that the world has ever been darker,” Paul says. “The way our society is, there are people who don’t go to church and they aren’t going to. I understand. If you have not been going, when you walk into a church, it can be awkward. I know. I wasn’t raised in the church.

“People today are so detached from that. We are going to go out there and sing some secular songs and go out there and love on people. … As a family, I think there is a love that people pick up on. We try to soften hearts and then somewhere in the course of the program we can drop a gospel song or two in and hopefully it will melt a heart and we plant a seed.”

Paul often reflects on his own life before being pointed to Jesus. 

“You know, I played bars like crazy. I never drank. I didn’t smoke pot or anything. but when I was playing bars, there was always a certain sadness. I didn’t understand it. I was 20 years old. It always bothered me but I was kind of in the same situation. I didn’t have someone there to say, ‘That’s not how it works, Paul.'”

To say Paul Martin is excited about his newest accolade is a major understatement. To be considered worthy of induction is a testament to his commitment to excellence. 

And Paul is excited about the paths and doors God continues to open for Rockland Road. 

HALL OF FAME INDUCTION CEREMONY OCTOBER 26

Tickets are available for the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, to be held on Saturday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m. in the New Barn at Renfro Valley.

This year’s inductees include hard rock band Black Stone Cherry (Edmonton), gospel music singer-songwriter Rodney Griffin (Mt. Vernon), honky-tonk bar and performer Bobby Mackey (Wilder), multi-instrumentalists Paul Martin (Winchester) and Jimmy Mattingly (Leitchfield), world renowned bluegrass and Appalachian performers The McLain Family Band (Berea), sound engineer Billy Moore (Paint Lick), owner of Nashville’s famed honky-tonk bars Legend’s Corner, The Stage, and Second Fiddle Ruble Sanderson (Mayfield), multi-genre singer-songwriter turned producer and actor, Sturgill Simpson(Jackson & Versailles), country and bluegrass singer-songwriter Charlie Sizemore (Puncheon Creek), and pure honky-tonk country singer Gary Stewart (Jenkins).

Tickets can be purchased at http://www.renfrovalley.com.