Barbecue Bob & Charlry Lincoln

Hicks Brothers | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 26, 1999)
• Original Release Date: October 26, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Catfish UK
• ASIN: B00001ZT1B
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #927,374 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Georgia 12-string blues, September 10, 2006

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Pitoucat (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barbecue Bob & Charlry Lincoln (Audio CD)

The brothers Robert and Charlie Hicks were two of the finest blues musicians around Atlanta in the late 1920s. (Why Charlie recorded under the name of Lincoln is unknown.) Both played big 12-string guitars but their styles were different. Bob was the extrovert and Charlie the introvert, and it shows in their music, with Bob delivering lively up-tempo performances, while older brother Charlie generally opted for the slow and moody. Even when attempting to raise a smile on 'If It Looks Like Jelly', he sounded morose. In his useful notes, Paul Swinton suggests that the recording engineers gave Charlie the pseudonym Laughing Charley as a kind of perverse joke. (The photos on the cover of this CD say it all, even if Charlie has been dressed up in Bob's suit and tie.) Consequently, I'm unsure of the wisdom of interleaving the brothers' tracks on this CD, as Catfish have done. It is useful for comparing and contrasting their different styles, but on the other hand, Charlie could be a real party pooper. Just as Bob manages to get things swinging, along comes Charlie to put a damper on the whole proceedings. It even eventually gets to Bob, who ends the album by telling us 'We Sure Got Hard Times Now'. Perhaps I'm being unfair to Charlie. He produced some great recordings, but this particular arrangement of tracks does him no favors.

I mentioned the brothers' use of 12-string guitars, but I'd better qualify that statement. A friend of mine - a longtime blues fanatic and 12-string authority - thinks that Barbecue Bob's reputation as an archetypal Georgia 12-string artist is based upon no more than a clutch of his early recordings together with a couple of possibly fortuitous photographs which show him holding such an instrument. He swears that much of Bob's later output is played on a 6-string, albeit perhaps a National steel, and comparison of 'California Blues' followed by 'Poor Boy' on this album might appear to bear out his theory. Heresy? Well, listen and decide for yourself.

Whatever, there is some glorious music on this album, with 'Barbecue Blues', 'Goin' Up The Country', 'Motherless Chile Blues', and 'How Long Pretty Mama' amongst the stand-out items. We also get to hear a couple of the spoken duets by the brothers, although these tend to bore after several listenings. Of more interest are the sides by The Georgia Cotton Pickers, a group comprising Bob and Curley Weaver on guitar and vocals, with the young Buddy Moss on harmonica. They produce some rocking music on 'I'm On My Way Down Home' and 'She's Coming Back Some Cold Rainy Day', both variants of 'Sitting On Top Of The World'.

Watch out for a couple of errors in the track listings. Instead of Bob's 'It's Just Too Bad' we get the even better 'Good Time Rounder', but 'Yo Yo Blues' turns out to be the inferior sequel 'Yo-Yo Blues No.2'. I've been in awe of the excellent sound quality on Catfish's previous releases, and in particular their Blind Lemon and Bukka White CDs. There are some equally stunning examples here, including the very first track, but also a couple ('Mama Don't Rush Me' and 'Chain Gang Trouble') which are available in clearer sound elsewhere. Even more puzzling is the fact that 'Gamblin' Charley' lasts for twenty seconds longer than usual, although nothing extra has been included. That's equivalent to slowing the 78 down to 70 rpm, and makes Laughing Charley sound even more melancholy. Despite the caveats, this CD represents an interesting addition to the Catfish catalogue. With a little more care taken it could have been even better.