A pivotal member of the hugely successful bluegrass band Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys, Dobro pioneer Josh Graves (1927-2006) was a living link between bluegrass music and the blues. In Bluegrass Bluesman, this influential performer shares the story of his lifelong career in music. In lively anecdotes, Graves describes his upbringing in East Tennessee and the climate in which bluegrass music emerged during the 1940s. Deeply influenced by the blues, he adapted Earl Scruggs's revolutionary banjo style to the Dobro resonator slide guitar and gave the Foggy Mountain Boys their distinctive sound. Graves' accounts of daily life on the road through the 1950s and 1960s reveal the band's dedication to musical excellence, Scruggs' leadership, and an often grueling life on the road. He also comments on his later career when he played in Lester Flatt's Nashville Grass and the Earl Scruggs Revue and collaborated with the likes of Boz Scaggs, Charlie McCoy, Kenny Baker, Eddie Adcock, Jesse McReynolds, Marty Stuart, Jerry Douglas, Alison Krauss, and his three musical sons. A colorful storyteller, Graves brings to life the world of an American troubadour and the mountain culture that he never left behind. Born in Tellico Plains, Tennessee, Josh Graves (1927-2006) is universally acknowledged as the father of the bluegrass Dobro. In 1997 he was inducted into the Bluegrass Hall of Fame.
''Graves's name won't ring a bell for many outside musicians' circles, but Burkett 'Uncle Josh' Graves helped take bluegrass from southern Appalachia to college campuses and beyond, to the world-music status it enjoys today. When he joined Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in 1955, his fiery, blues-inspired playing on the Dobro resonator slide guitar gave the Foggy Mountain Boys a signature sound that set the band apart from the herd. The Foggy Mountain Boys played fast and hard-driving and as loud as acoustic music can get. Their dynamic stage shows, featuring acrobatic turns at a lone mic for breakneck solos, remain the stuff of legend.'' - Wall Street Journal, October 2012 ''An excellent autobiography of a highly creative musician. Graves was a first-rate storyteller with a discerning sense of what was important in his many memorable experiences.'' - John Wright, author of Traveling the High Way Home: Ralph Stanley and the World of Traditional Bluegrass Music ''Josh Graves inspired hundreds of musicians to pick up the steel bar and slide it over the strings of the Dobro... It's good and fitting that the story of this talented and influential musician is being preserved in his own words.'' - from Neil Rosenberg's foreword to the book ''Josh Graves, previously of Flatt & Scruggs and Foggy Mountain Boys has an autobiography posthumously published by University of Illinois Press. Bluegrass Bluesman: A Memoir is edited by Fred Bartenstein and includes lively anecdotes that describe Grave's upbringing in East Tennessee, his involvement in the emergence of bluegrass and later work with Alison Krauss, Kenny Baker, Marty Stuart, Jerry Douglas and many others.'' - R2 (Rock-n-Reel) Magazine, November 2012 ''The book's strong narrative is drawn from several days of interviews conducted with Graves in 1994 by Barry Willis but only put together for this book by the editor a couple of years after Josh's death in 2006. It is a beautifully constructed text, never losing the flavour of the musician's verbal recollections yet assembling a wealth of factual details, musical and personal philosophical insights.'' - Rock'n'Reel, 1st January 2013 ''Even at its modest length, Bluegrass Bluesman, less a history than field report, makes for solid value if you're drawn towards bluegrass and curious about those who created it. A first-class raconteur with a back-county accent and easy going sense of humour, Graves recreates a lost world and vivid personalities who lived in it.'' - Froots
