Reviewed by Lins Honeyman

Georgian chef-cum-bluesman Robert Hicks' acclaim may have faded away over the decades but the artist better known as Barbecue Bob cut over 60 sides for Columbia Records in the 1920s and became one of the label's best-selling blues exponents. This 24 track remastered sample from the 'Rough Guide To Blues Legends' series shows why. Compared to counterparts such as Charley Patton and Blind Willie Johnson, Hicks' delivery is refreshingly light with a warm melodic vocal performance and his trademark bottlenecked 12 string guitar offering up a sound that is captivating, upbeat and infectious. For the most part, Hicks sticks to the more carnal side of the blues with self-explanatory numbers such as the "She Looks So Good" and "She Moves It Just Right" plus the borderline explicit "It Just Won't Quit" setting the general tone whilst "Chocolate To The Bone" and "Brown-Skin Gal" are ultimately a fascinating, if slightly uncomfortable, peek into the race attitudes of the time. Only two spiritual numbers feature - "When The Saints Go Marching In" and "Jesus' Blood Can Make Me Whole" - but it's in more considered numbers such as the cautionary "Spider And The Fly" and the percussive "Motherless Chile Blues" (faithfully covered by Eric Clapton on his 1994 'From The Cradle' release) that Barbecue Bob shows a maturity beyond a life that was tragically extinguished at the age of 29.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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