Bobby Hicks with a fiddle he bought from Birch Monroe – photo © Lincoln Hensley
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.
But the call of home, and his mother’s poor health, brought him back to Greensboro, where Hicks found ready work with a number of local groups, and teaching private students. His reputation with Monroe also led to studio fiddling opportunities, and he took time to record his solo project, Texas Crapshooter.
Things changed again in 1981 when Ricky Skaggs, then pursuing a career in country music, asked Bobby to join his touring band. Of course, Skaggs exploded onto the country scene with hit after hit, many of them pulled from the catalog of artists like Jim Eanes, The Stanley Brothers, and Flatt & Scruggs. That same year found Hicks caught up in the excitement over the first recording by the Bluegrass Album Band, with Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson, J.D. Crowe, and Todd Phillips. He was included in the first five records they made together while continuing with Ricky.
In 2004, he said goodbye to Skaggs and the road life, at which point he was 71 years old. But Bobby continued to perform with band near his home, now in western North Carolina. He continued to play his fiddle, as well as banjo and guitar, up to the very end.
Banjo player and bandleader Lincoln Hensley tells us that he had been traveling to visit Hicks regularly, and he always wanted to play and sing. Their last get together in person was just a few weeks ago.
Though he didn’t often show it, Bobby was a fine singer, and a top notch banjo picker as well. During Ricky’s country days, Hicks would often be called on to play banjo on songs like Highway 40 Blues and Country Boy.
Here he is a few months ago with Lincoln and the Tennessee Bluegrass Band singing We Could.
A member of the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, Hicks was inducted into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2017.
Bobby’s widow Cathy says that she is planning a private service, after which Bobby’s ashes will be scattered among the mountains where they live. A public Celebration of Life will be announced at a later date.
Farewell to Bobby Hicks. A bluegrass life, lived to the fullest. We aren’t likely to see his kind again; a true bluegrass hero.
R.I.P., Bobby Hicks.
