Janis

Although she spent eight years in Akron, Ohio as a child, Janis Martin Martin always said that Virginia was her home. She was born Janis Martin Darlene Martin in Sutherlin, Virginia on March 27, 1940. When you consider that Ringo Starr, who epitomized a later generation, was born just four months later, you realize how young she was when she started. "I had a mother who was a show business/stage type mother," she told Bob Allen. "Both my father and my uncle were amateur musicians, and I can't remember a time when I didn't play or sing." In February 1951, bluegrass star Jim Eanes settled near the Martins, and Janis Martin joined him on the radio. Too young to play bars, she became a supporting act and local added attraction when the big names came to town. By age fourteen, Janis Martin had graduated to WRVA's 'Old Dominion Barndance' in Richmond when the show was a big deal in the country music world. When Janis Martin joined in 1953, she performed alongside Hawkshaw Hawkins, Jean Shepard, the Carter Sisters, Sonny James, and Martha Carson.

The legendary American pianist Byron Janis, who turns 95 in March 2023, was the first pupil of another iconic pianist - Vladimir Horowitz. Horowitz famously told Janis 'I don't want you to be a 'second Horowitz' I want you to be a 'first Janis'.' Janis certainly established himself on the world stage when he made his Carnegie Hall debut recital in October 1948, garnering a rave review from the New York Times' Olin Downes who praised him as a distinctive artist in his own right destined for a major career. Between 1960 and 1964 Janis made a set of remarkable recordings for the Mercury Living Presence label.