Country music legend who worked with iconic artists such as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen dead at 85
A country music icon whose career coincided with Bob Dylan's died last week, following a battle with a mystery illness.
Mary Martin was 85, and had been an important but unsung hero for folk and rock music.
A sort of connector and catalyst for the genres, she passed Thursday while receiving palliative care at Nashville’s Alive Hospice.
She rubbed shoulders early on with Dylan in the 60s, before winning a Grammy for an album in which he was featured.
The manager and executive helped start the budding careers of Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, and Keith Urban, and worked with big names like Janis Joplin. A cause of death was not immediately provided, but the news of her passing was confirmed on social media.
Mary Martin, a country music manager credited with bringing Keith Urban to the US, died last week after a battle with a mystery illness. She was 85
A sort of connector and catalyst for the genres, she passed Thursday while receiving palliative care. A cause of death was not provided
'Time and again, Mary Martin spotted great talents and elevated their careers,' Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum CEO Kyle Young said in a statement posted to Instagram Saturday, 17 years after the exec's own induction.
'Early on, she connected Bob Dylan to her friends the Hawks, who became the Band,' Young recalled.
'She managed Leonard Cohen in his first musical outings, the guided the budding solo careers of Van Morrison, Rodney Crowell, and Vince Gill.
'At Warner Bros., she signed future Country Music Hall of Fame member Emmylou Harris, at RCA she helped sign and develop Clint Black and Lorrie Morgan, and she encouraged a young Keith Urban to move from Australia to Nashville.
'Mary’s unerring feel for songs and performers was legendary, and she was a fierce ally for the artists she represented,' the historian concluded.
As mentioned, Martin spent her life in the country music sector, in a career that spanned more than 60 years.
Decades before she encouraged Urban to relocate from his homeland of Australia, she worked as an assistant for famed manager Albert Grossman, whose own stable would eventually include Dylan, Joplin, Peter, Paul & Mary, Gordon Lightfoot and more.
She worked for him in New York for four years in the 60s, before branching out on her own - often the business connections that she had gained working for Grossman to her advantage.
A cause of death was not provided, but news of her death circulated on social media
Martin is seen speaking with Singer and songwriter Emmylou Harris before a show in LA in '75, when she worked for Warner Bros. representative and personal advisor
The pair are pictured together again in Nashville in 2018, for Emmylou's exhibition debut at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Her mosst famous act in the music biz was introducing Bob Dylan to the Hawks, who went on to become The Band. The folk icon is seen here with Martin's old boss Albert Grossman in 1965 during trackwork for Highway 61 Revisited
Martin's stable in the 60s and 70s included big names like Leonard Cohen and Van Morrison
It was at this point she became wrapped up with Cohen, then an established poet and novelist in Canada, with no music career to speak of.
Representing him along with a rising Morrison, she would eventually hit it big, joining Warner Bros Records as an executive in 1972.
She managed Cohen until 1969 - same year she began to manage Van Morrison.
Martin would then sign a series of other stars, including Emmylou Harris, Leon Redbone and The Marshall Tucker Band, before moving to LA to continue her success.
At this point, she returned to artist management, working with country performers like Rodney Crowell and Vince Gill.
She then moved to Nashville in 1985, where she worked in executive positions at a plethora of labels.
As vice president of RCA, she worked with stars like Gill, Clint Black, Paul Overstreet, Aaron Tippin and Lorrie Morgan.
She would go on to assume the post of vice president at Mercury Records in 1999, before winning her first and only Grammy for her work as a producer on the Hank Williams tribute album Timeless, which featured a track by Dylan.
She was also the manager of Vince Gil, seen here performing in Nashville this past December
Martin is seen here giving an interview to Country Music Hall of Fame's Jay Orr at Ford Theater, Country Music Hall of Fame on November 17, 2009, following her own induction
In 2009, she gave an interview to Country Music Hall of Fame's Jay Orr at Ford Theater, Country Music Hall of Fame on November 17, 2009.
In it, she revealed how she had tried to get Dylan to sign with Warner Bros back in 73, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
'The first thing I do on Warner Bros. stationary is write Bob Dylan a letter,' she recalled.
'And the letter sort of goes on for a while... I sort of suggested to Bob that he could work with me at Warner Bros.
'He was sort of getting readt to take a journey from Columbia, this would be a great time for him to come work for Warner Bros.
She went on to chide the 'bloody gatekeepers' that presumably kept that letter away from the folk icon, which she said would go on to become commonplace in the industry.
'That pissed me off,' she quipped.
She also spoke about spending time at the Grossmans' house in Woodstock, swimming matches with Dylan she said he won, and the cat on the cover of "Bringing It All Back Home"
She died at Nashville’s Alive Hospice, after living in the city for nearly 40 years. Prior to that, she worked in both New York and LA. She was an inspiration to countless people
the iconic shot, taken on the estate of her old boss Grossman, was difficult to secure, she said, because the cat would not look directly into the camera's lens.
She died in Nashville, where she's lived for the past 40 years.
She served as an inspiration to countless people in the music industry, particularly women.
