Robert Hicks, better known as Barbecue Bob (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931), was an early American

Piedmont blues Piedmont blues (also known as East Coast, or Southeastern blues) refers primarily to a guitar style, which is characterized by a fingerpicking approach in which a regular, alternating thumb bass string rhythmic pattern supports a syncopated melo ...

musician. His nickname was derived from his working as a

cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...

in a

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...

restaurant. One of the three extant photographs of him show him playing a guitar and wearing a full-length white apron and cook's hat.

Early life

Hicks was born in Walnut Grove, Georgia. His parents, Charlie and Mary Hicks, were farmers. He and his brother,

Charlie Hicks Charles A. Hicks (January 4, 1939, Marion, North Carolina – May 12, 2015), also known as "Charlie B", was an American broadcaster familiar to listeners in radio markets throughout the southeastern United States. He worked in the field for 55 ...

, together with Curley Weaver, were taught how to play the guitar by Curley's mother, Savannah "Dip" Weaver.Barlow, William (1989). ''"Looking Up at Down": The Emergence of Blues Culture''. Temple University Press. pp. 195–96. . Bob began playing the 6-string guitar but picked up the

12-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...

after moving to Atlanta, Georgia, in 1924. He became one of the prominent performers of the newly developing Atlanta blues style. In Atlanta, Hicks worked at various jobs, playing music on the side. While working at Tidwells' Barbecue in a north Atlanta suburb, he came to the attention of

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

talent scout Dan Hornsby. Hornsby recorded him and used Hicks's job to publicize his records, having Hicks pose in chef's whites and hat for publicity photos and dubbing him "Barbecue Bob". Before his death in 1931, he married a woman named Claudine and lived off Hillard Street in Atlanta.1930 Census

Career

During his short career Hicks recorded 68 78-rpm sides. His first, "Barbecue Blues", was recorded in March 1927. The

record A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

quickly sold 15,000 copies and made him a best-selling artist for

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

's race series. Following this initial success, his next release firmly established him in the race market. At his second recording session, in New York City in June 1927, he recorded "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues", a song inspired by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. This song and his other blues releases were popular, and his records sold better than those of other Atlanta blues musicians. With his brother

Charley Lincoln Charley Lincoln (born Charlie Hicks, Jr., March 11, 1900 – September 28, 1963), also known as Laughing Charley, was an early American country blues musician. He often recorded with his brother Robert Hicks, who was billed as Barbecue Bob. L ...

(also known as Charlie Lincoln or Laughing Charley) he recorded "It Won't Be Long Now", a

duet A duet is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece, often a composition involving two singers or two pianists. It differs from a harmony, as the performers take turns performing a solo ...

with crosstalk, in Atlanta on November 5, 1927. In April 1928, Hicks recorded two sides with the singer Nellie Florence, whom he had known since childhood, and also produced "Mississippi Low Levee Blues", a sequel to "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues". In April 1930, he recorded "We Sure Got Hard Times Now", which contains bleak references to the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Barbecue Bob was primarily a blues musician, but he also 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". Barbecue Bob also recorded as a member of the Georgia Cotton Pickers in December 1930, a group consisting of Bob and the guitarist Curley Weaver and harmonica player

Buddy Moss Eugene "Buddy" Moss (January 16, 1914 – October 19, 1984) was an American blues musician. He is one of two influential Piedmont blues guitarists to record in the period between Blind Blake's final sessions in 1932 and Blind Boy Fuller's de ...

. As a group they recorded a handful of sides, including their adaptation of Blind Blake's "Diddie Wa Diddie" (recorded as "Diddle-Da-Diddle") and the

Mississippi Sheiks The Mississippi Sheiks were a popular and influential American guitar and fiddle group of the 1930s. They were notable mostly for playing country blues but were adept at many styles of popular music of the time. They recorded around 70 tracks, ...

' " Sitting on Top of the World" (recorded as "I'm on My Way Down Home"). They were his last recordings. Hicks died in Lithonia, Georgia, of a combination of tuberculosis and pneumonia brought on by

influenza Influenza, commonly known as "the flu", is an infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Symptoms range from mild to severe and often include fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pain, headache, coughing, and fatigue. These symptoms ...

, at the age of 29, on October 21, 1931. His recording of "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" was apparently played at his graveside before the burial.

Musical style

Hicks developed a "flailing" or "frailing" style of guitar playing more often associated with the traditional clawhammer

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

(as did his brother, and, initially, Curley Weaver). He regularly used a bottleneck on his 12-string guitar, playing in an elemental style that relied on an open Spanish tuning, reminiscent of Charley Patton. He had a strong voice, which he embellished with growling and

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

, and a percussive singing style.

Influence

Hicks had some influence on Atlanta blues musicians, such as the young

(who played harmonica with him on recordings by the Georgia Cotton Pickers), but his way of playing was quickly overshadowed by the finger-picked

style, which rose in popularity by the late 1920s and early 30s; this development can be heard in the recordings of Curley Weaver. Barbecue Bob's "

Motherless Child Blues "Motherless Child Blues" (or, in dialect, "Motherless Chile Blues") is the name of two distinct traditional blues music, blues songs. They are different melodically and lyrically. One was first popularized by Barbecue Bob, Robert "Barbecue Bob" Hi ...

" was recorded and performed on stage by

Eric Clapton Eric Patrick Clapton (born 1945) is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is often regarded as one of the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in ''Rolling Stone''s list of ...

. John Fahey attributed his arrangement of "Poor Boy a Long Ways from Home" to Barbecue Bob in his 1979 ''Best 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

4246-D 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest co ...

which the Death household at one time possessed." Hicks's elder brother,

, also played blues and was recorded by Columbia under the name Laughing Charley Lincoln, but he never received the same acclaim as his brother.

Recording sessions

*Atlanta, March 25, 1927 *New York City, June 15, 1927 *New York City, June 16, 1927 *Atlanta, November 5, 1927 *Atlanta, November 9, 1927 *Atlanta, November 10, 1927 *Atlanta, April 13, 1928 *Atlanta, April 21, 1928 *Atlanta, October 26, 1928 *Atlanta, October 27, 1928 *Atlanta, November 2, 1928 *Atlanta, April 11, 1929 *Atlanta, April 17, 1929 *Atlanta, April 18, 1929 *Atlanta, October 30, 1929 *Atlanta, November 3, 1929 *Atlanta, November 6, 1929 *Atlanta, April 17, 1930 *Atlanta, April 18, 1930 *Atlanta, April 23, 1930 *Atlanta, December 5, 1930 *Atlanta, December 7, 1930 *Atlanta, December 8, 1930

References

*Swinton, Paul. (2001). ''The Essential Barbecue Bob''. Audio CD liner notes. Classic Blues 200026. *Document Records, vols. 1–3. Sleeve notes on Barbecue Bob (Robert Hicks).

External links

* *
Barbecue Bob page from Blues Online siteBarbecue Bob at AuthenticBlues.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bob, Barbecue 1902 births 1931 deaths African-American guitarists 20th-century African-American male singers Country blues singers American blues guitarists American male guitarists Country blues musicians People from Walton County, Georgia Musicians from Atlanta Columbia Records artists 20th-century American guitarists Guitarists from Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Georgia (U.S. state) Deaths from pneumonia in Georgia (U.S. state) Deaths from influenza