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Biography Barbecue Bob

Robert Hicks, better known as Barbecue Bob (September 11, 1902 ? October 21, 1931), was an early American country blues musician. His nickname came from the fact that he was a cook in a barbecue restaurant. One of the two extant photographs of Bob show him playing his guitar while wearing a full length white apron and cook's hat.

Life

He was born in Walnut Grove, Georgia. He was taught how to play the guitar by Curley Weaver's mother, Savannah "Dip" Weaver, along with Curley Weaver and his brother Charley Lincoln. Bob began playing the 6-string guitar but picked up the 12-string guitar after moving to Atlanta in 1923-1924. He became one of the prominent performers of the newly developed Atlanta blues style. He worked at Tidwell's Barbecue in the Atlanta suburb of Buckhead. There he met Columbia Records talent scout Dan Hornsby, who decided to use Hicks's job as a gimmick, photographing him in chef's whites and hat and dubbing him "Barbecue Bob".

Career

During his short career he recorded 68 78-rpm sides,He recorded his first side, "Barbecue Blues" in March 1927. The record quickly sold 15,000 copies and made him the best selling artist for Columbia up to that date. Though despite this initial success it was not until his second recording session which took place in New York during June 1927 that he firmly established himself on the race market. The first song he recorded at this session was "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" a song which was extremely relevant to contemporary issues of his time, which had been inspired by the major floods which took place in Mississippi that very same month. This song was a considerable seller and as a result he became Atlanta's most recorded blues musician of the 1920's. It is this success which likely persuaded Columbia to record both his brother Charlie and Curley Weaver.

The two part piece duet with crosstalk "It Wont be Long Now" with his brother Charlie was recorded in Atlanta on the 5th of November 1927, this acts as an example of the kind of material which he would have performed at a medicine show containing a fair amount of monologue accompanied by guitar playing in the background. Bob was known to have played with a medicine show with which he visited the small town of Waycross, Georgia about which he made up a blues. In Waycross it is speculated that he may have met mysterious blues musician Willie Baker, from nearby Patterson who recorded in a similar style but remained more or less unknown. Although Barbecue Bob remained predominantly a blues musician he also recorded a few traditional and spiritual songs including When the Saints Go Marching In, Poor Boy a Long Ways from Home and Jesus' Blood Can Make me Whole. At this early stage of his career Bob quickly impressed himself onto his fans minds as being witty, clever and original.

In April 1928 Bob recorded two sides with female vocalist Nellie Florence whom he had known since childhood and also produced "Mississippi Low Levee Blues", a sequel to "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues". One of the songs recorded Jacksonville Blues was credited to Spencer Williams, who was an employee to Joe Davis whose company Triangle Music owned the copyright to the song. This along with five other songs recorded by Barbecue Bob were also copyrighted to Davis. Evidently we can see that writing sequel songs was not the only way in which Bob's career had been affected by the manipulations of the music industry. Although he was not responsible for the lyrics in some of these songs it is still quite clear that he was responsible for the arrangements each fitting with his own personal style and technique.

By April 1929 Bob was adding a new style of music to his repertoire, Hokum Blues was a musical style sparked off by Tampa Red & Georgia Tom recording of "It's Tight like That" the previous September. This musical style being characterized by its sexually illusive metaphors and innuendo's. Whether or not Bob introduced this style into his own on his accord or with the encouragement of the music industry can not be known for sure, though probably both factors were at work. In the latter part of 1929 and throughout 1930 the depression began to take its toll on the music industry though despite this Columbia were persistent in recording Barbecue Bob. In April 1930, he recorded "We Sure Got Hard Times" which contains bleak references to the early effects of the depression with references to unemployment among other things. In Autumn 1930 Bob's wife had died and in December Columbia were back in Atlanta and he remained undeterred from recording his performances were as fierce and emotive as usual.

Barbecue bob not only recorded as a solo artist but also as a member of The Georgia Cotton Pickers in December 1930, that also included blues legends Curley Weaver and Buddy Moss who was only 16 years old at the time, as a group they recorded a handful of sides including their own adaption of Blind Blake's Diddie Wa Diddie (recorded as Diddle-Da-Diddle) and The Mississippi Sheiks Sitting on Top of the World (recorded as I'm On My Way Down Home). These were the last recordings that "Barbecue Bob" Robert Hicks produced and he died in Lithonia, Georgia of pneumonia brought on by influenza at the young age of 29 on the 21st October 1931.

Influence

During and after his life Bob was a big influence on the Atlanta blues musicians such as Blind Willie McTell and especially to Curley Weaver whose recording sessions in 1933 show great influence from Bob's work and career. His elder brother Charley also played blues and was recorded by Columbia under the name "Laughing" Charley Lincoln. However, he never received the same acclaim that his brother had from playing.