Josh Graves

Uncle Josh Graves transformed the Dobro’s place in country and bluegrass traditions. A player of remarkable talent, celebrated for his rolling, syncopated attack and remarkable velocity, his landmark sides with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys cemented the resonator guitar as a core element of postwar roots music. Born Burkett Graves in Tellico Plains, TN, on September 27, 1927, he first took up the Dobro after hearing childhood idol Cliff Carlisle, a regular presence on Jimmie Rodgers’ historic RCA dates. As a teenager he created the “Uncle Josh” character while serving as an announcer at Knoxville’s WROL, then joined the Pierce Brothers in 1942, handling both guitar duties and comedy. Engagements with Esco Hankins, Molly O’Day, and Mac Wiseman came next, until broader notice arrived through his work behind Stoney Cooper and Wilma Lee on WWVA’s weekly Wheeling Jamboree. In 1949, while part of Lexington-based WLEX’s Kentucky Mountain Barn Dance, Graves studied under banjo pioneer Scruggs and eventually translated Scruggs’ three-finger syncopation to the Dobro. His refined yet blues-inflected touch proved essential on ballads, yet his most striking contributions emerged on brisk breakdowns, where phrasing and drive stood out.

When Graves became a full-time Foggy Mountain Boy in May 1955—the same month Flatt and Scruggs joined WSM’s Grand Ole Opry—the Dobro had fallen so far out of favor that he was first assigned bass and comic relief. He nonetheless carried his resonator on the road and received a featured spot on “Steel Guitar Chimes.” Audience enthusiasm for the number prompted Flatt and Scruggs to hire Joe Stuart on bass so Graves could concentrate on the instrument full-time. Numerous fans and historians credit the Dobro with freshening the duo’s sound; Graves stayed until the band dissolved in 1969. He later worked with Flatt’s Nashville Grass and also spent time in the Earl Scruggs Revue. Launching a solo career in 1974, he issued his first album, Alone at Last, on Epic Records and became a highly regarded session player, appearing on Kris Kristofferson’s Jesus Was a Capricorn, Steve Young’s Seven Bridges Road, and J.J. Cale’s Really.

Following his fourth solo release, 1979’s Same Old Blues, Graves set aside headlining work to return to sideman duties. In 1984 he began an on-and-off partnership with fiddler Kenny Baker that lasted more than twenty years. In 1990 the pair joined banjo master Eddie Adcock and mandolin virtuoso Jesse McReynolds in the Masters; their debut, Saturday Night Fish Fry, earned the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Instrumental Recording of the Year award. Graves received induction into the IBMA Hall of Honor in 1997. Despite serious health issues later in life that led to the loss of both legs, he kept performing and recording into the new century, frequently appearing with son Josh Jr., a multi-instrumentalist formerly of surf-rock hitmakers Ronny & the Daytonas. In 2002 he released his final album, Memories of Foggy Mountain, collaborating with a younger generation of players that included J.D. Crowe and Audrey Haney. Graves passed away in Nashville on September 30, 2006, three days after his 79th birthday.