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. 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.
| Title Contents Foreword Murphy Hicks Henry Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Something About Me 1. Meeting Jimmy Martin 2. Moving On 3. Having Babies 4. Back and Forth 5. Up and Down 6. Booking Jimmy Martin 7. Funerals 8. Living with Jimmy Martin 9. Showers and Surprises 10. You're Gonna Change or I'm Gonna Leave 11. Life after Jimmy Martin 12. All My Children 13. Life in Florida and the Kids Return 14. Letting Go of Jimmy Martin 15. Through It All, No Regrets 16. Jimmy Martin's Family Epilogue Index |"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"[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
"Don't Give Your Heart to a Rambler offers a fascinating look into the world of bluegrass during the 1950s and 60s." —Bluegrass Breakdown
|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.