Josh Graves, born in Tennessee in 1927, transformed bluegrass by establishing the Dobro as a central instrument in the genre. As a member of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys, he helped create their distinctive sound and performed on almost all of their Columbia recordings.

Inspired by Cliff Carlisle, Graves developed a rolling three-finger Dobro style adapted from Scruggs’ banjo technique. He joined the Foggy Mountain Boys in 1955, played on songs including “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” and “The Ballad of Jed Clampett”, and remained with the group until 1969. Despite losing both legs to circulatory problems, he continued performing until his death in 2006, and was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1997.