Bobby Hicks obit

Bobby Hicks passes

 

He was not on the list.

Fiddler Bobby Hicks, surely among the most celebrated and enduring musicians to ever play bluegrass music, has died from complications of heart disease. After suffering a heart attack on Saturday (8/10), he underwent surgery to install a pacemaker yesterday, and passed away in his sleep at about 3:30 a.m. this morning. He was 91 years of age.

From early days with Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys, through a time playing pop country in Las Vegas, to his memorable stint with Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, few did as much to define bluegrass fiddle as thoroughly, and with more joy and spirit, than Bobby Hicks.

Born Robert Caldwell Hicks, July 21, 1933 in Newton, NC, young Bobby first discovered the fiddle in the hands of Smoky Graves, several years after learning to play the mandolin and guitar as a boy. His family played traditional mountain music growing up, and he was pulled into it quite naturally. Once his brother tired of Bobby’s mandolin playing and put him out of their band, he dedicated himself fully to fiddling.

It was after the family moved to Greensboro when he was 12 that Bobby tried his first fiddle contest, placing first in the North Carolina State Championship. He continued on the convention and contest circuit for the next several years, winning his share as he became a fine player. In 1953 his first professional gig came along, playing fiddle for Jim Eanes, where he also got his first taste of recording in Nashville. Not long after he went to work for Benny Jarrell & the Flint Hill Playboys, and country singer Bob Williams.

But Bobby’s fate was sealed when he was asked to play bass on a run of North Carolina dates with Bill Monroe in ’53. As those shows were being completed, Bill asked him if he wanted the job full time, which meant a move to Nashville. Once he realized what a strong fiddler his young bass man was, Bill moved him to that position. During this time Hicks recorded a number of Monroe gems, Wheel Hoss, Roanoke, and Cheyenne, which remain standards to this day.

The Korean War took Hicks away from music for a two-year hitch in the Army from 1956-58. But he rejoined Monroe upon his return, and recorded several more classic tunes with the band. His fiddle appears on most of the tracks on Bill’s Bluegrass Instrumentals record, released in 1965, though most had been recorded in the late ’50s. There we hear Bobby on Stoney Lonesome, Tall Timber, Brown County Breakdown, Panhandle Country, Big Mon, Scotland, Monroe’s Hornpipe, and the cut of Wheel Hoss he had done in 1953. Many of those were double or triple fiddled alongside Charlie Cline, Gordon Terry, Kenny Baker, and Vassar Clements.

What an explosion that  album created in bluegrass!

Following that time with Monroe, Bobby took a job with country star Porter Wagoner, where he remained for a few more years in Nashville. Low pay prompted a move to Las Vegas where he quickly found work with country singer Judy Lynn, who kept him in the band for the next seven years. He also developed and performed his own solo show there in Vegas.