Barbecue Bob
Robert Hicks, known as Barbecue Bob, was a prominent American Piedmont blues musician born on September 11, 1902, in Walnut Grove, Georgia. Raised in a family of sharecroppers, he was taught to play guitar by Savannah "Dip" Weaver, alongside his brother Charley Lincoln and Curley Weaver. Initially playing a six-string guitar, Hicks switched to the twelve-string guitar after moving to Atlanta in the mid-1920s, where he became a key figure in the early Atlanta blues scene.
Hicks worked various jobs in Atlanta, including as a cook at Tidwells' Barbecue, where his singing and cooking gained local fame. This dual role caught the attention of Columbia Records talent scout Dan Hornsby, who recorded Hicks and gave him the moniker "Barbecue Bob," capitalizing on his culinary job for publicity.
Between 1927 and 1930, Barbecue Bob recorded 68 songs for Columbia Records, becoming one of their best-selling artists in the race records series. His debut single, "Barbecue Blues," sold 15,000 copies, and his subsequent hit, "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues," was inspired by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. Hicks's music was characterized by his strong voice, percussive singing style, and use of bottleneck on his twelve-string guitar, often played in an open Spanish tuning.
Barbecue Bob also recorded with other musicians, including his brother Charley and childhood friend Nellie Florence, and was part of the Georgia Cotton Pickers group. Despite his success, Hicks's life was cut short when he died of pneumonia and tuberculosis on October 21, 1931, in Lithonia, Georgia, at the age of 29. His legacy as a pioneering Atlanta blues artist remains influential in the genre's history.
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