Biography

Singer Carolyn Martin has been described as “… a winning throwback to the days where emotion was measured and artful rather than loud and histrionic.” From European concert halls to intimate venues at home in Nashville, fans have come to know Carolyn as a a vocalist with a unique sense of musical style, a charismatic stage presence and a voice that exudes passion and experience – the soulful elegance that is the very essence of music.

Carolyn Martin is a native Texan who has lived in Nashville for many years. She began singing professionally while growing up in Abilene, and began traveling and performing throughout Texas and the rest of the US a few years later. Since settling in Nashville in 1985, she has had the pleasure of working with many of the most talented musicians and singers in the world.

Carolyn was a member of Nashville’s Time Jumpers, a western swing band comprised of Nashville’s finest session musicians and singers for 11 years. Their latest project, “Jumpin’ Time”, garnered two Grammy nominations. Carolyn was also featured as part of the Time Jumpers DVD “Jumping Time”, which has appeared on more than 140 Public Television stations and has won two Emmy awards.

A belief that “Swing is Swing” allows her group, Carolyn Martin’s Swing Band, to range far beyond the ‘tradtitional’ western swing repertoire; she will juxtapose western swing classics from Bob Wills, Cindy Walker and Spade Cooley with swing era song from Peggy Lee, Hoagy Carmichael and Louis Armstrong, show tunes from Broadway and Hollywood, traditional country tunes from Faron Young and Hank Williams along with new material written by Carolyn and her friends.

Carolyn was the 2008 recipient of the Academy of Western Artists’ Will Rogers Cowboy Award for Western Swing Female Vocalist of the Year. She was nominated for the award again this year, while her latest CD, “Swing” was nominated as Western Swing Album of the Year by the Western Music Association. In 2008, western swing DJ’s and reviewers around the world named “Swing” as one of the Top 10 albums of the year.