I was walking down an old dirt road and it was Sunday time
When I heard the sound that changed my life coming down the mountainside
On the hill there stood a cabin, weathered, gray and old
That front porch bluegrass picking, son, was pure Kentucky gold

They sang Blue Moon of Kentucky just the way that it was wrote
They played a song called Down the Road and they never missed a note
There was a man a'singing and he wore a big white hat
It could have been old Bill Monroe or maybe Lester Flatt

I learned to play the guitar and sing a lonesome song
I wrote a song called Tennessee, that's where my heart belongs
I took sunny mountain music to the Grand Old Opry
My name is Jimmy Martin, do you remember me

They fired me from that factory job I needed at the time
Little did I know the fame waited just on down the line
With my guitar in an old tote sack, my heart was full of joy
When this Hancock County farmer's son became a bluegrass boy

I took my music far and wide where I heard the people call
For the sunny side of the mountain where the rippling waters flow
They called me the king of bluegrass, everybody knew my name
From a little town called Sneedville the the bluegrass hall of fame

I learned to play the guitar and sing a lonesome song
I wrote a song called Tennessee, that's where my heart belongs
I took sunny mountain music to the Grand Old Opry
My name is Jimmy Martin, do you remember me