BARBECUE BOB (Robert Hicks) — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 1 • 1927-1928 | DOCD-5046 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

"Barbecue Bob," who was born Robert Hicks, gained his nickname because he worked as a chef at a barbecue place. A warm singer and extroverted guitarist, Barbecue Bob has had his entire output (recorded during 1927-1930) reissued on three Document CDs. Vol. 1 has 21 unaccompanied performances (all of the sessions except two from New York were recorded in Atlanta) plus the two-part "It Won't Be Long Now," which teams Hicks with hs brother, guitarist/vocalist "Laughing Charley" Hicks. Other highlights include "Barbecue Blues," "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues," "Poor Boy a Long Ways From Home," "Brown-Skin Gal," an early version of "When the Saints Go Marching In" (from 1927), "Fo Day Creep," and "Chocolate to the Bone."  Scott Yanow

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Robert Hicks was an extrovert young man of 24 when Columbia’s Dan Hornsby arranged his first recording session in March 1927 and had only moved into Atlanta from the countryside a few years before. When he recorded, Hicks was working as a chef at Tidwell’s Barbecue, and the company nicknamed him Barbecue Bob (using his real name as a pseudonym for his solitary gospel record!). He and his elder brother Charlie had learned guitar, along with their friend Curley Weaver, from Curley’s mother; all three played in a similar style, favouring the big, booming sound of the 12-string guitar, and relishing the contrast of pulsing bass riffs with the whine of a bottleneck on the treble strings. Barbecue Blues was a good seller, but it was at his second session, in New York in June 1927, that Bob firmly established himself with black record buyers, DOCD-5037
Tracklist :
1    Barbecue Bob–    Barbecue Blues    3:09
2    Barbecue Bob–    Cloudy Sky Blues    3:07
3    Barbecue Bob–    Mississippi Heavy Water Blues    3:05
4    Barbecue Bob–    Mamma You Don't Suit Me!    3:07
5    Barbecue Bob–    Brown Skin Gal    3:02
6    Barbecue Bob–    Honey You Don't Know My Mind    3:08
7    Barbecue Bob–    Poor Boy A Long Ways From Home    3:00
8    Barbecue Bob–    When The Saints Go Marching In    3:06
9    Barbecue Bob–    Jesus' Blood Can Make Me Whole    3:03
10    Barbecue Bob–    Easy Rider Don't You Deny My Name    2:54
11    Barbecue Bob–    Thinkin' Funny Blues    3:22
12    Barbecue Bob–    My Mistake Blues    3:18
13    Barbecue Bob–    Motherless Chile Blues    3:10
14    Barbecue Bob–    How Long Pretty Mama    3:20
15    Barbecue Bob And Laughing Charley–    It Won't Be Long Now ~ Part 1    3:29
16    Barbecue Bob And Laughing Charley–    It Won't Be Long Now ~ Part 2    3:23
17    Barbecue Bob–    Crooked Woman Blues    2:48
18    Barbecue Bob–    'Fo Day Creep    3:02
19    Barbecue Bob–    Blind Pig Blues    3:12
20    Barbecue Bob–    Waycross Georgia Blues    3:06
21    Barbecue Bob–    Going Up The Country    3:10
22    Barbecue Bob–    Chocolate To The Bone    2:49
23    Barbecue Bob–    Hurry And Bring It Back Home    3:03
Credits :
Guitar, Vocals – Charlie Hicks (tracks: 15, 16)
Vocals, Guitar – Barbecue Bob

BARBECUE BOB (Robert Hicks) — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 2 • 1928-1929 | DOCD-5047 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

"Barbecue Bob," whose complete output has been reissued on three Document CDs, was a fairly big star by the time he recorded the 23 numbers on Vol. 2. Based in Atlanta (where all of these performances, including a previously unreleased "Unnamed Blues," were recorded), Barbecue Bob (Robert Hicks) performed a friendly repertoire ranging from country blues to the new-fangled hokum music. Among the more memorable selections on this disc are "Mississippi Low-Levee Blues," "Midnight Weeping Blues" (one of two numbers that find him backing singer Nellie Florence), "Beggin' for Love," "It Just Won't Hay," "Black Skunk Blues," and "Me and My Whiskey." Scott Yanow

Abridged from this albums original booklet notes. By the time he recorded Mississippi Low-Levee Blues, Barbecue Bob was a star on race records; one proof is simply that he produced a sequel to his hit of the previous year. Another is that he is careful to refer to himself as “Barbecue Bob“, the name by which the public knew him, rather than as “Robert Hicks“, as he’d done on Mississippi High Water Blues. At the end of this April 1928 session, Columbia recorded the sexually aggressive singer Nellie Florence, a childhood friend of the Hicks brothers, with Bob playing guitar and, it’s said, Laughing Charlie doing the hooting, extrovert cackle – though it sounds very unlike his mirthless, stagey trademark as heard on records. On Jacksonville Blues, Florence was singing a song credited to “Williams”, who was Spencer Williams, at that time an employee of Joe Davis. In October 1928, Bob himself was to record two more Spencer Williams compositions, Cold Wave Blues and Bad Time Blues and Black Skunk Blues was another. Meat Man Pete had been recorded by Monette Moore as far back as 1924. Evidently, writing sequel songs wasn’t the only way Bob’s music was affected by the manipulations of the music industry. One wonders, incidentally, about the identity of “Carter”, credited with the erotically urgent Ease It To Me Blues, copyrighted by Clarence Williams. He probably wasn’t Bo, who hadn’t recorded at this date, and he seems unlikely to have been George Carter, who recorded in a similar style to Bob, but was unremembered in Atlanta. Dollar Down Blues is almost a documentary account of the perils of easy credit; Freeze To Me Mama is a love song for grownups; and Trouble Done Bore Me Down belies its title with its witty observations:

“You got a large family, you don’t need no more, The doc drop by, you get four or five more”.

As well as these blues, and others like the fierce California Blues, and Yo Yo Blues, which was based on Curley Weaver‘s No No Blues, by April 1929 Bob was adding a new style of music, one that took account of the craze for the sexually allusive hokum blues that had been sparked off by Tampa Red & Georgia Tom with It’s Tight Like That, recorded in September 1928. Whether this was his own idea, or done with record company encouragement, we can’t know for certain; probably both factors were at work. It Just Won’t Hay takes close notice of It’s Tight Like That, but it’s still unmistakably Bob; even more so is Honey Your (sic) Going Too Fast. Who else would come up with

“The gals up north, speedin’ like cars, Gals in Atlanta don’t wear no shoes,”

instantly confirming by indirection that the flat chested look of the 20s had gone out of fashion? As if to confirm that he was the master of new music crazes, not their servant, on Red Hot Mama – Papa’s Going To Cool You Off, he takes crazy liberties with the structure of this nominally 16 bar – but try to count them – song. By the end of 1929, the greatest of the “panics” Spencer Williams had referred to in Bad Time Blues was under way. Nevertheless Columbia were to persist with recording Barbecue Bob, for he was a proven good seller in economically happier times, and his last recordings, made all through 1930, are to be heard on Document DOCD-5048. DOCD-5037
Tracklist :
1    Barbecue Bob–    Mississippi Low-Levee Blues    3:09
2    Barbecue Bob–    Ease It To Me Blues    2:56
3    Nellie Florence–    Jacksonville Blues    2:55
4    Nellie Florence–    Midnight Weeping Blues    2:55
5    Barbecue Bob–    She's Gone Blues    3:24
6    Barbecue Bob–    Cold Wave Blues    3:28
7    Barbecue Bob–    Beggin' For Love    3:18
8    Barbecue Bob–    Bad Time Blues    3:15
9    Barbecue Bob–    Meat Man Pete    3:12
10    Barbecue Bob–    Dollar Down Blues    3:20
11    Barbecue Bob–    It Just Won't Hay    3:05
12    Barbecue Bob–    It's Just Too Bad    3:11
13    Barbecue Bob–    Good Time Rounder    3:07
14    Barbecue Bob–    Honey Your Going Too Fast    2:59
15    Barbecue Bob–    Red Hot Mama Pap's Going To Cool You Off    2:55
16    Barbecue Bob–    California Blues    2:57
17    Barbecue Bob–    It's A Funny Little Thing    2:52
18    Barbecue Bob–    Black Skunk Blues    2:58
19    Barbecue Bob–    Yo Yo Blues    2:54
20    Barbecue Bob–    Trouble Done Bore Me Down    3:02
21    Barbecue Bob–    Freeze To Me Mama    2:53
22    Barbecue Bob–    Me And My Whiskey    3:06
23    Barbecue Bob–    Unnamed Blues    3:05
Credits :
Guitar, Voice [Laughing, Speech] – Barbecue Bob (tracks: 3, 4)
Vocals – Nellie Florence (tracks: 3, 4)
Vocals, Guitar – Barbecue Bob (tracks: 1, 2, 5 to 23)

BARBECUE BOB (Robert Hicks) — Complete Recorded Works In Chronological Order ★ Volume 3 • 1929-1930 | DOCD-5048 (1991) RM | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

"Barbecue Bob"'s final recordings are on this third of three discs. Bob (whose name was actually Robert Hicks) died on October 21, 1931, at the age of just 29 from pneumonia. Since his last solo records were made during November 6, 1929, and April 17-December 5, 1930, there is no decline heard in his singing or playing. Barbecue Bob is heard on 13 unaccompanied numbers (including "She Move It Just Right," "Yo Yo Blues No. 2," "We Sure Got Hard Times," and "Atlanta Moan") and interacting with his brother Charlie Lincoln on the amusing two-part "Darktown Gamblin'." Barbecue Bob's final four recordings were made as part of the Georgia Cotton Pickers on December 7-8, 1930, a trio with guitarist/singer Curly Weaver and Buddy Moss on harmonica. Recommended, as are all three volumes of this valuable series.  Scott Yanow

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 Its 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 Bobs talent for original songs rooted in black culture was still going strong. That session was Barbecue Bobs 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. DOCD-5037
Tracklist :
1    Barbecue Bob–    She Moves It Just Right    2:54
2    Barbecue Bob–    Tellin' It To You    3:11
3    Barbecue Bob–    Yo-Yo Blues, No. 2    3:10
4    Barbecue Bob–    She Shook Her Gin    3:08
5    Barbecue Bob–    We Sure Got Hard Times    3:24
6    Barbecue Bob–    Twistin' That Stuff    3:07
7    Barbecue Bob–    Monkey And The Baboon    3:03
 Traditional
8    Barbecue Bob–    Spider And The Fly    3:32
9    Robert And Charlie Hicks–    Darktown Gamblin' -- Part 1 (The Crap Game)    3:02
 Public Domain / Traditional
10    Robert And Charlie Hicks–    Darktown Gamblin' -- Part 2 (The Skin Game)    3:06
11    Barbecue Bob–    Jambooger Blues    3:14
 Robert Hicks
12    Barbecue Bob–    It Just Won't Quit    3:14
13    Barbecue Bob–    Atlanta Moan    3:02
 Robert Hicks
14    Barbecue Bob–    New Mojo Blues    3:25
15    Barbecue Bob–    Doin' The Scraunch    2:54
16    Georgia Cotton Pickers–    I'm On My Way Down Home    3:11
17    Georgia Cotton Pickers–    Diddle-Da-Diddle    3:00
18    Georgia Cotton Pickers–    She Looks So Good    2:57
19    Georgia Cotton Pickers–    She's Coming Back Some Cold Rainy Day    3:00
Credits :
Harmonica – Buddy Moss (tracks: 16 to 19)
Speech – Barbecue Bob (tracks: 9, 10), Unknown Artist (tracks: 10)
Speech, Guitar [possibly] – Charlie Hicks (tracks: 9, 10)
Vocals, Guitar – Curley Weaver (tracks: 16 to 19)
Vocals, Twelve-String Guitar – Barbecue Bob