Reed Martin is without doubt one of today's premier old-time banjo players, and he is a master both of clawhammer and a number of old-time fingerpicking styles. His unique playing style shows remarkable power, intensity, and drive, while still maintaining the flexibility to project sophisticated melodic ideas. This enables him to capture both the inherent rhythmic style of southern fiddling and the phrasing and beauty of its melodies.

...As noted in the interview that follows, Reed's playing style is a synthesis of "traditional" and "revival" influences. Not only did he have plenty of exposure to "genuine" old-time music in and around Bloomington, but this process continued when his family moved to the Cockeysville, Maryland area around 1960. Over the next decade or so, he also sought out, observed, and absorbed playing methods and tunes from a vast number of traditional players. Some of these players -- like Pete Steele and Dock Boggs -- had been extensively recorded, and have become quite well known to banjo aficionados. Others -- like Dorothy Rorrick, Homer Spriggs, and Robert Russell Wesley -- live on primarily in the musical memories of Martin and perhaps a few others.

Reed also interacted with and learned from "revival" players. He notes that his interest in stringed instruments may have first been awakened by Joe Hickerson -- then a young guitar-picking "folksinger" who stayed a few times with the Martin family in the mid-50s (today, Hickerson is head of the Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture). Once Reed had taken up banjo, he credits revival players like Charlie Cox, Peter Hoover, Dan Gellert, and Andy Wallace with getting him started. Moreover, once he had gained some proficiency, his frequent appearances as a contestant at the Union Grove Fiddlers' Convention in North Carolina brought him into frequent contact with such notable revival old-time banjo players as Walt Koken, Tommy Thompson, Rick Lee and John Burke...

Brad Leftwich -

...We've crossed paths several times over the years and I've always enjoyed playing music with him and talking to him...  His style is his very own, unlike anything I've ever heard; very intricate, yet delivered with musicality, grace, ease, and -- when called for -- speed that belies its complexity.