Jimmy Martin was born in 1927 in Sneedville, Tennessee, and raised in a grueling farming community where his mother and stepfather sang gospel in church. In the winter of 1949, hearing that Mac Wiseman had left Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys, he rode a bus to Nashville, slipped backstage at the Grand Ole Opry, and started playing in the hallway until banjo player Rudy Lyle marched him over to Monroe, who hired him after two songs. Martin's piercing lead voice pushed Monroe into higher keys and helped forge the high lonesome sound on tracks like Sitting Alone in the Moonlight and I'm Blue, I'm Lonesome.

This episode follows Martin from his clashes with Monroe to forming the Sunny Mountain Boys in 1955 with J.D. Crowe and Paul Williams, branding his crowd-pleasing style Good 'n' Country, bringing a snare drum on stage, and landing hits like Hi ...