Barbecue Bob : reborn and remastered

"Robert Hicks recorded 68 sides before dying of pneumonia in 1931, at just 29 years of age. These 24 tracks, recorded for Columbia Records between 1927 and 1930, reveal a versatile artist with possibly the most engaging voice of all the early male blues singers. No slouch on the twelve-string guitar, his strong, expressive Piedmont fingerpicking guitar style is embellished with bottleneck and banjo frailing techniques ... The omission of breakthrough, signature song Mississippi Heavy Weather Blues in inexplicable, but there are plenty of less familiar gems here, and the quality of the remastering throughout makes this a very attractive, affordable introduction to Barbecue Bob".