Born Lamar N. Gamblin, Jr. in Philadelphia on August 21, 1944, Marty Gamblin built a long career in the music business that began with booking bands while still in high school and college in Philadelphia and Louisville. Exposed early to country music through the Grand Ole Opry, Jimmie Rodgers Day festivals in Meridian, and the Neshoba County Fair, he also played trombone in the award-winning Philadelphia High School band led by Victor W. Zajec. After leaving Mississippi State University, he worked for Jackson-based Vivace Music as a tour manager, promoter, and booking agent for performers including The Poppies, Jim Weatherly & the Vegas, Tim Whitsett and the Imperials, Tommy Tate, and B.J. Thomas. In the early 1970s he worked for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, overseeing tribal community programs and directing the Choctaw Indian Fair, then moved to Nashville in 1977 to open Jim Weatherly’s publishing company, Rip/Keca music, later relocated to Los Angeles. During his tenure there, dozens of artists recorded Weatherly’s songs, including charting recordings by Weatherly, Ray Price, Charley Pride, Bob Luman, and Gladys Knight & the Pips, whose “Midnight Train to Georgia” reached number one on both the Hot 100 and R&B charts in 1973 and received a GRAMMY. From 1982 until 2002, Gamblin served as president of Glen Campbell Music Group, managing artists including Alan Jackson, Bryan White, Dorothy Moore, Pearl River, and Ruby Lovette, and representing catalogs that produced sixteen number one hits, including Alan Jackson’s ASCAP songs of the year “Don’t Rock the Jukebox” in 1992 and “Chattahoochee” in 1994, Jimmy Webb’s GRAMMY-winning “Highwayman,” and Randy Travis’ GRAMMY-nominated “It’s Just a Matter of Time.” Returning to Mississippi in 2003, he again worked for the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and in 2010 became the founding executive director of the Mississippi Arts + Entertainment Experience in Meridian, helping develop the facility’s design, content, marketing, and fundraising; after it opened in 2018, he continued as director of its Hall of Fame and Walk of Fame.
