Barbecue Bob

Robert Hicks, known as Barbecue Bob (he worked at a barbecue restaurant in Atlanta), was the most commercially successful of the Atlanta twelve-string guitarists of the late 1920s. He recorded 68 sides for Columbia between 1927 and 1930, featuring a percussive, rhythmic twelve-string style and an engaging, good-humored vocal delivery. His brother Charlie Hicks recorded as Charley Lincoln. Barbecue Bob's recordings 'Barbecue Blues,' 'Motherless Chile Blues,' and 'Going Up the Country' were strong sellers, and his style influenced the broader Atlanta blues scene. He died of pneumonia at age 29, cutting short what might have been one of the major careers of the pre-war era.