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Barbecue Bob | |
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 Hicks in 1927 | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Barbecue Bob |
| Born | Robert Hicks (1902-09-11)September 11, 1902 Walnut Grove, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | October 21, 1931(1931-10-21) (aged 29) Lithonia, Georgia, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Instruments |
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| Years active | 1920s–1931 |
Robert Hicks (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931), known asBarbecue Bob, was an AmericanPiedmont blues musician who played 12 string guitar which was popular in theAtlanta, Georgia, area at the time.[1] A record talent scout gave him his nickname because he worked as acook in abarbecue restaurant.[1] One of the two existing photographs of him shows him playing his guitar and wearing a full length, white apron and cook's hat.
Hicks was born inWalnut Grove, Georgia.[1] His parents, Charlie and Mary Hicks, were sharecroppers. They moved to Newton County where his friendCurley Weaver's mother, Savannah "Dip" Weaver, taught Bob and his brother,Charley Lincoln, how to play the guitar.[2][1][3] Hicks began playing the six string guitar but picked up thetwelve string guitar after moving to Atlanta, in 1924.[1] He became one of the prominent performers of the newly developing Atlanta blues style which featured the 12 string.
In Atlanta, Hicks worked at various jobs, playing music on the side. While working at Tidwells' Barbecue in a north Atlanta suburb, he cooked for and sang to customers and became a local celebrity, coming to the attention ofColumbia Records talent scout,Dan Hornsby, who recorded him and dubbed him "Barbecue Bob" using Hicks's job to publicize his records having him pose in chef's whites and hat for publicity photos.[3]
Between March 1927 and December 1930, Hicksrecorded 68 songs forColumbia Records, becoming one of the best-selling artists on theirrace series, being outsold only byBessie Smith,Ethel Waters andBlind Willie Johnson.[2][1] "Barbecue Blues", his first song, was his first hit.[4] Therecord quickly sold 15,000 copies. At his second recording session, in New York City in June 1927, he recorded "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues", a song inspired by theGreat Mississippi Flood of 1927 and a recording that firmly established him in the race market.[5] This song and his other blues releases were popular and his records sold better than those of other Atlanta blues musicians.[3]
With his brother,Charley Lincoln, (also known as Charlie Lincoln or Laughing Charley), he recorded "It Won't Be Long Now", aduet with cross talk, in Atlanta on November 5, 1927. In April of the following year, Hicks recorded "Mississippi Low Levee Blues", a sequel to "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" plus two songs with a singer he had known since childhood, Nellie Florence, being "Midnight Weeping Blues" and "Jacksonville Blues".[citation needed] In April 1930, he recorded "We Sure Got Hard Times Now" which contains bleak references to theGreat Depression. As was usual with other blues singers, he recorded a few traditional songs and spirituals including "When the Saints Go Marching In", "Poor Boy, Long Ways from Home" and "Jesus' Blood Can Make Me Whole".
Hicks also recorded as a member of the Georgia Cotton Pickers in December 1930, the group consisting of Hicks, guitaristCurley Weaver and bluesmanBuddy Moss playing harmonica. They recorded a handful of songs including their adaptation ofBlind Blake's "Diddie Wa Diddie" recorded as "Diddle-Da-Diddle" and theMississippi Sheiks' "Sitting on Top of the World" recorded as "I'm on My Way Down Home". They were his last recordings.
Hicks died inLithonia, Georgia, on October 21, 1931, at the age of 29 of a combination oftuberculosis andpneumonia brought on byinfluenza.[1] His recording of "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" was played at his graveside before he was buried.[citation needed] In 2017 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed the headstone for Robert Hicks at United Methodist church in Walnut Grove, Georgia.[6]
Hicks developed a "frailing" style of guitar playing more often associated with the traditionalclaw hammerbanjo (as did his brother, and Curley Weaver). He regularly used abottleneck on his twelve string guitar, playing in anopen Spanish tuning (open G or open A tuning) reminiscent ofCharley Patton. He had a strong voice which he embellished with growling andfalsetto.[3]
Hicks had some influence on Atlanta blues musicians such as the youngBuddy Moss, but his way of playing was quickly overshadowed by the finger-pickedPiedmont blues style which rose in popularity by the late 1920s and early 1930s; this development can be heard in the recordings ofCurley Weaver and theReverend Gary Davis.[citation needed]
Eric Clapton played Hicks's "Motherless Child Blues" on stage and recorded it.John Fahey attributed his arrangement of "Poor Boy a Long Ways from Home" to Hicks in his 1979Best Of book of tablature. Fahey attributed the song to the fictitious Blind Joe Death, writing that "Death learned this from an old Columbia record by Barbecue Bob [14246-D], which the Death household at one time possessed."
