Barbecue Bob (Robert Hicks)

Complete Recorded Works 25 March 1927 – 1 December 1930

Vol 3: 6th November 1929 to 8th December 1930

Featuring the recordings of:

Barbecue Bob (Robert Hicks), vocal / guitar. Robert and Charlie Hicks: Barbecue Bob (Robert Hicks), vocal / guitar / speech; Charlie Lincoln (Charlie Hicks), vocal / speech / possibly guitar; unknown, speech on 10. Georgia Cotton Pickers: Curley Weaver, vocal / guitar; Barbecue Bob, vocal / guitar; Buddy Moss, harmonica.

Genres: Blues, Atlanta Blues, Georgia Blues, Country Blues, Country Blues Guitar, Bottleneck-slide Guitar, 12-string Guitar, Blues Harmonica, Hokum

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Columbia’s field recording trips to the South took place twice a year from 1925 to 1930, in the spring and the late fall; having collected eight songs (of which they issued six) from Barbecue Bob in November 1929, they returned as usual in April 1930. On this occasion, Bob’s brother Charlie Lincoln made his only recorded appearance under his real name on the comic dialogues Darktown Gamblin’, which were credited to Robert & Charlie Hicks. Barbecue Bob was still a hot property as far as Columbia were concerned, though they were shortly to find that his, like all blues records, were becoming a luxury that blacks could ill afford in those “hard times”. Similarly, Bob was concerned to keep in tune with trends in the entertainment industry; he recorded a follow up to Yo Yo Blues and continued to turn out variations on “It’s Tight Like That”, including one which referred to that song by name. Twistin’ Your Stuff was un-issued at the time. Monkey And The Baboon may have inspired Bob to write his own animal story, based on the fable of the spider and the fly. In December 1930, Columbia was back in Atlanta. Bob appeared as usual to record and began with the fiercely sung and played Jambooger Blues. Atlanta Moan and Doin’ The Scraunch were rewrites of hit records. New Mojo Blues, though, confirmed that Bob’s talent for original songs rooted in black culture was still going strong. That session was Barbecue Bob’s last as a solo artist, but shortly afterwards he brought his long-time friend Curley Weaver and a 16 year old boy called Buddy Moss, to the Campbell Hotel. There they cut four magnificent sides as the Georgia Cotton Pickers, with Moss playing fiery harmonica, Weaver playing brilliant slide guitar and Bob contributing rhythm guitar and lead vocals. Their first two songs were versions of hits by the Mississippi Sheiks and Blind Blake, while She Looks So Good was hokum; She’s Coming Back Some Cold Rainy Day was a well-known theme around Atlanta, and recorded by several of the local musicians.

Chris Smith Copyright 1991 Document Records.

DOCD-5048