Nova Scotia blues guitarist Wade Brown, best known as a member of Canadian blues legend Dutch Mason's band, has died at the age of 63.

Brown's body was discovered by a friend who dropped by his home in Truro, N.S., on Friday night.

Over the past decade, he had been in declining health and suffered from Crohn's disease, according to friends of the musician.

A member of the Dutch Mason Blues Band during the group's heyday in Dartmouth, N.S., and Toronto in the 1970s, Brown served as a mentor to his peers and to younger musicians.

He was born in Truro and much loved in the community.

"He had a lot of respect in this town," Kim Noble, a relative of the guitarist, told the Truro Daily News.

"Dutch Mason was the prime minister of the blues; he was next in line."

Brown occasionally teamed up again with Mason in the 1980s and 1990s before the bandleader's death in 2006. One of Brown's last major performances was at the Dutch Mason Blues Festival in August 2009.

Plans for a memorial are underway.