Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player

Subject: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: Wesley S
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 09:45 AM

I don't have a link to a story yet but I hear that this superb dobro player passed away over the weekend. He was a major influence on dobro players everywhere.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: Cruiser
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 11:15 AM

Josh Graves did a good job backing up Kenny Baker on some instructional VHS fiddle tapes I have.


Josh Graves


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Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: Gene
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 02:12 PM

U can listen to and/or download some tracks here

http://www.luma-electronic.cz/lp/elpe.htm

G

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 04:05 PM

Thanks, Gene....he will be missed. One of the greats.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: Gene
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 06:16 PM

Josh was a Great Musician, for Sure!

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 06:35 PM

Some people are directly responsible for something so large that their name is and always should be associated with it. What Josh Graves did for Dobro is like what few others have done for an instrument. He quite literally saved it in the electric din of the late 50's and made it a part of several &W genres including Bluegrass.

A really great musician. Take it easy now Buck and thanks.....

Spaw

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: Gern
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 10:41 AM

Nice tribute, Spaw. Uncle Josh's obit should have hundreds of hits by now. His leads were unforgettable, perfectly crafted and not at all 'second-fiddle' to what Earl was up to. Aggressive finger picking with a nice, bluesy swing. He toured for years rather informally with Kenny Baker, who was equally accomplished and tasteful, and the two of them made great music long after Josh could stand up. His nephew Tim Graves plays around the bluegrass circuits. Sorry to lose this legend.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: open mike
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 11:27 AM

i cannot find mention of his passing or an obit online
but i did find this article:

JOSH GRAVES was born Burkett H. "Buck" Graves, 27 Sept. 1928 in Tellico Plains, Monroe Co., Tennessee. His Graves ancestry is not presently known. He is one of the main people responsible for the acceptance and popularity of the Dobro® guitar in bluegrass and country music. In 1942, Graves joined the Pierce Brothers and began playing in Gatlinburg. Later he played with Esco Hankins and Mac Wiseman before becoming a part of the Wheeling Jamboree with Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper. During a performance at the Grand Ole Opry, Graves made a big impression upon Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs who invited him to join their Foggy Mountain Boys. He played with other groups and solo after that.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: open mike
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 11:28 AM

He had just had his 78th birthday on the 26th of Sept.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: pdq
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 11:34 AM

He was born in 1925, which would make him 81.

Graves had severe diabetes and had to have a leg amputated a few years back. He showed up later, after recovering, in a Marty Stuart video. Sitting on a porch playing the Dobro, the missing leg is not evident due to a towel placed under the Dobro. This was a tough man and a real trooper.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: GUEST,tarheel
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 01:07 PM

one of the great ones and it was my privildge to have seen him in person many times with Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mtn Boys...
so long,josh...rest in peace!
Tar...

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: Wesley S
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 01:16 PM

Tarheel - I would have loved to have seen that line-up.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: Severn
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 04:05 PM

Graves pretty much introduced the sound as a standard part of a Bluegrass band using some licks that put it past the weepy Hawaiian-based sounds favored by such people as Pete "Oswald" Kirby of Roy Acuff's band and "Shot" Jackson, the leading Nashville Dobro session man of the day. From his first recorded solo with the band in the middle of "Randy Lynn Rag in 1955, where his break just leapt out into the mix and still sounds powerful and fresh, he established a permanent home for an instrument that was losing out to the steel guitar in Country Music recording and might have phased itself out. He was the Gold Standard for Dobro players, his name synonymous with that of the instrument, until the emergence and innovations of Mike Auldridge and Jerry Douglas in the 70's, and remained a hero to the newer generation of players that has emerged since.

So leave your computers for a minute and go back and listen to "Randy Lynn Rag" and try to imagine hearing that break come in for the first time into the music for most people and try to imagine the revelation felt by those who heard it and aurally witnessed a musical milestone. A small but great musical moment.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: Gene
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 05:37 PM

here's some other information & tributes to Uncle Josh Graves.

http://www.well.com/user/wellvis/graves.html

http://www.joshgraves.4t.com/discography.htm

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/03102006/325/dobro-artist-uncle-josh-dead-79.html

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 10:23 PM

What a fine duo Buck and Kenny Baker were. (And what a fine finger-picker Kenny is too; a fact overlooked since he was a dynamic fiddler with Monroe for so long.)

The duo were at several of the University Of Chicago Folk Festivals in recent years. Just wonderful.

Buck Graves was all that Spaw said---and more.

Art

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: GUEST,Debbie
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 01:44 PM

I was very sad to learn of Josh's passing, he is one of the reasons I started taking dobro lessons

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 10:07 PM

just wanted to clear up that josh graves did not have diabetes.. he had blood clots in his legs is why he had them removed... my info comes from a very close and dear friend of uncle josh's

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: Ebbie
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 11:00 PM

A few years back Josh Graves and Kenny Baker were the Guest Artists at the Alaska Folk Festival in Juneau. Just the two of them but they kept us spellbound.

I remember at a workshop they did that a Texas-style fiddler friend of mine asked for 'Jerusalem Ridge' and Baker said, OK, you start it. And my friend did and the two guys jumped in behind. A great moment.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 07 Oct 06 - 12:30 AM

I met Buck many years ago in Emporia, Va., while he was working with Flatt & Scruggs. He was a nice guy and a great musican who will be missed. I can still see him and Jake in my mind doing some of their great comedy. We will miss you Buck but I am sure that you, Jake, and Lester will have a great jam session up there in Bluegrass Heaven.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: GUEST,ray-seckler
Date: 26 May 10 - 07:10 AM

iam curly secklers oldest son ray . josh was the best and a second father figure to me. i miss him every day.he was a true dedicated music man who loved his work and people and his family. he truly loved life and show business.he will always be here in spirit and may he and the flatt& scruggs era always be known as the real bluegrass legends as the interstate was not the path they road.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: GUEST,Stephen
Date: 19 Jan 11 - 04:27 PM

I played with Josh and Kenny by the tellico river where he loved to go on his birthday, and with his nephews Tim, Ted, and Mike. I lived about 6 miles from his home but didn't know of him until about '73 when I joined Ted and Tim in a band. He was just as nice a man as he was talented. It was an honor to know him and meet his family and Kenny. I miss him, too. I live close to Ted, now. Hope to visit him soon.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: GUEST,Gern
Date: 19 Jan 11 - 06:05 PM

An inspiration to most of the dobro players my age I've ever met. Josh should also be regarded as a fine blues musician, as his leads her often assertively bluesy.

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: GUEST,bankley
Date: 19 Jan 11 - 06:55 PM

RIP JG
I wore out a few Flatt and Scruggs records that he was on.
I esp. liked live at Carnegie Hall... he sure made that hound-dog sing

Subject: RE: Obit: Buck Graves/Uncle Josh - Dobro Player
From: pdq
Date: 19 Jan 11 - 07:44 PM

" It was an honor to know him and meet his family and Kenny. I miss him, too." ~ GUEST,Stephen

Since "Buck" Graves and Kenny Baker were mentioned together several times, that statement will lead people to think that Kenny Baker is gone when he is not.

Kenny Baker is 84 and was wise enough to record two albums "Cotton Baggin'" and "Spider Bit the Baby" about ten years ago when he was still in top form.