Barbecue Bob – Barbecue Blues – The Collection 1927-30 – 2CD

Born Robert Hicks in Georgia in 1902, Barbecue Bob was an early exponent of the Piedmont style of blues, and was a contemporary around the Atlanta scene of artists like Blind Blake, Josh White, Curley Weaver, Blind Willie McTell, Buddy Moss and others. He had a distinctive guitar style, using the “frailing” technique as well as using a bottleneck on a 12-string guitar, and acquired his stage name because he was working as a barbecue chef when he did his first recordings, and publicity shots featured him in his chef’s outfit. His career was tragically curtailed when he died from tuberculosis and pneumonia in 1931 at the age of 29. This 47-track 2-CD collection comprises a significant proportion of his career recordings on the Columbia label, and includes recordings with his brother Charlie “Laughing Charley” Lincoln, and with Curley Weaver and Buddy Moss as The Georgia Cotton Pickers. It includes his “Motherless Child”, a song regularly performed by Eric Clapton, along with his famous song “Mississippi Heavy Water Blues”, inspired by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927. He is one of those blues artists who is not widely known but whose music helps to appreciate the nuances of the Piedmont blues tradition.

Track Listing:

CD1:
Barbecue Bob: 1. Barbecue Blues -   2. Cloudy Sky Blues -   3. Mississippi Heavy Water Blues -   4. Mama, You Don't Suit Me -   5. Jesus' Blood Can Make Me Whole -   6. Honey, You Don't Know My Mind-   7. Poor Boy A Long Ways From Home -   8. Brown Skin Gal -   9. Easy Rider, Don't You Deny My Name -   Barbecue Bob & Laughing Charley: 10. It Won't Be Long Now -   Barbecue Bob: 11. Crooked Woman Blues -   12. Fo Day Creep -   13. Motherless Child -   14. Goin' Up The Country -   15. Mississippi Low Levee Blues -   16. Way Cross Georgia Blues -   17. Chocolate To The Bone -   18. My Mistake Blues -   19. Hurry And Bring It Back Home -   20. Blind Pig Blues -   21. Cold Wave Blues -   22. Meat Man Pete -   23. It's Just Too Bad -

CD2:
Barbecue Bob: 1. It Just Won’t Hay -   2. It's A Funny Little Thing -   3. Honey, You're Going Too Fast -   4. Red Hot Mama, Papa's Going To Cool You Off -   5. Good Time Rounder -   6. Bad Time Blues -   7. Trouble Done Bore Me Down -   8. Yo Yo Blues -   9. Freeze To Me Mama -   10. Me And My Whiskey -   11. Monkey And The Baboon -    Robert & Charlie Hicks: 12. Darktown Gamblin' (The Crap Game) -   Barbecue Bob: 13. Tellin' It To You -   14. She Moves It Just Right -   15. We Sure Got Hard Times -   16. California Blues -   17. Black Skunk Blues -   Georgia Cotton Pickers: 18. She's Coming Back Some Cold Rainy Day -   19. Diddle Da Diddle -   Barbecue Bob: 20. Jambooger Blues -   21. Atlanta Moan -   22. Doin' The Scraunch -   Georgia Cotton Pickers: 23. I'm On My Way Down Home -   Barbecue Bob: 24. It Just Won’t Quit -