Burkett Howard “Uncle Josh” Graves, whose bluesy Dobro adorned hundreds of bluegrass and country records, has died after a lengthy illness.

According to his family, Graves was 79 years old when he died Saturday, though various publications list different dates of birth.

The Tellico Plains native was one of only a few professional Dobro players in the 1950s when he joined Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Boys.

“Playing straight hillbilly music, which we now call bluegrass, on the Dobro back then was unheard of,” Scruggs told The Tennessean.

The Dobro is similar in shape and size to a guitar, but it has a metal resonator plate on its face and is played with a bar, not the fingers of the left hand.

“The vehicle that Josh Graves had as a Foggy Mountain Boy with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs allowed the Dobro to be showcased to the masses,” said WSM-AM on-air personality and country music historian Eddie Stubbs.

A member of the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Hall of Honor, his influence went beyond bluegrass. He joined The Earl Scruggs Revue in the 1970s, becoming a key member of that country-rock group. And in the studio he contributed to albums by Kris Kristofferson, J.J. Cale, John Hiatt and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

In recent years, Graves, who was also a skilled songwriter and comedian, had been in ill health he blamed on years of smoking and drinking and had endured the amputation of his legs.

He joked about his predicament, noting that leg-room wasn’t an issue when traveling anymore, and he continued to play the Dobro whenever possible.