Bobby Hicks (1933 to 2024) played fiddle on the Bill Monroe instrumentals that every bluegrass fiddler learns, then spent 23 years beside Ricky Skaggs in Kentucky Thunder. Fans called him the King of the Double Stops. He won three Grammys with Skaggs, an IBMA award for his 1998 album Fiddle Patch, and a place in the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2017.
Why Hicks matters
Listen to any modern bluegrass fiddler play a harmony line under a singer, and you hear Hicks. He took the double stop, two strings bowed at once, and made it the main voice of the instrument rather than a trick. His slides into those double stops gave bluegrass fiddle a smooth, singing sound that sat inside a band instead of on top of it. On the Monroe records he cut in the 1950s, and again with the Bluegrass Album Band in the 1980s, he set the standard for how a fiddle should support a vocal and drive an instrumental.
Life and career
Hicks was born on July 21, 1933, in Newton, North Carolina. He started on a three-quarter size fiddle at age seven, and his family moved to Greensboro when he was 12. At age 11 he won the North Carolina state fiddle championship playing Black Mountain Rag. In 1953 he took his first professional job with Jim Eanes.
That same year Carlton Haney introduced him to Bill Monroe. Monroe hired him on bass, then moved him to fiddle by the end of 1954. His first recording session with the Blue Grass Boys came on December 31, 1954. Over two stints, 1954 to 1956 and 1958 to 1959, Hicks recorded the instrumentals that define the Monroe catalog: Wheel Hoss, Roanoke, Cheyenne, Big Mon, Tall Timber, Panhandle Country, Scotland, Stoney Lonesome, Brown County Breakdown, and Monroe’s Hornpipe. Many of them appeared on the 1965 album Bluegrass Instrumentals. Army service from 1956 to 1958 split the two stints. Monroe later called him the truest fiddler he had ever heard.
Hicks joined Porter Wagoner in 1959. In 1963 he moved to Las Vegas, where he played the Judy Lynn Show for seven years. In 1978 he recorded Texas Crapshooter for County Records, with Vassar Clements on second fiddle for part of the album.
In 1981 two things happened. He joined Ricky Skaggs, a job that lasted until 2004, when Hicks was 71. He also played fiddle on The Bluegrass Album, the first record by the Bluegrass Album Band with J.D. Crowe, Tony Rice, Doyle Lawson, and Todd Phillips. He stayed for the first five volumes. With Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder he won Grammys for Bluegrass Rules! (1999), Ancient Tones (2000), and Soldier of the Cross (2001). His solo album Fiddle Patch (Rounder, 1998) won the IBMA award for Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year.
Hicks spent his last years in Marshall, North Carolina. He received the North Carolina Heritage Award in 2014 and entered the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2017. He died on August 16, 2024, at age 91. The North Carolina Music Hall of Fame inducted him on October 17, 2024.
Playing style
Hicks built his sound on double stops. He played two notes at once, often a third or a sixth apart, and slid into them from below so the harmony bloomed instead of snapping into place. That slide is the three-second tell. Under a singer he played a harmony line rather than fills, which is why Skaggs kept him for 23 years.
His tone was warm and round. He bowed with a long, even stroke and kept the pressure light, so even fast breakdowns like Wheel Hoss sound relaxed. His timing sat right on the beat. He told younger players that playing in tune and playing with good rhythm come before everything else.
From 1976 on he played a fiddle called Golden Boy, built that year by Harvey Keck of Burlington, North Carolina. He also played twin fiddle with Vassar Clements on Texas Crapshooter, and the harmony parts on that record are a course in twin fiddling by themselves.
Influences and legacy
Hicks came up through North Carolina fiddle contests and learned the Monroe repertoire from the source. He recorded beside Vassar Clements and followed Kenny Baker, Chubby Wise, and the other Monroe fiddlers into the Blue Grass Boys lineage. Michael Cleveland called him the ultimate fiddle god. Aynsley Porchak said no one has captured his tone, taste, and inventiveness. Every fiddler who plays a slid double stop under a bluegrass vocal is playing something Hicks worked out in the 1950s.
Signature tunes and songs
Roanoke Cheyenne Wheel Hoss Big Mon Scotland Panhandle Country Black Mountain Rag Fiddle Patch.
Essential recordings
Bluegrass Instrumentals, Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys (1965) Texas Crapshooter (County, 1978) The Bluegrass Album, Bluegrass Album Band (Rounder, 1981) Fiddle Patch (Rounder, 1998)
Awards and honors
North Carolina state fiddle champion, age 11 IBMA Album of the Year and Collaborative Recording of the Year, True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe (1997) IBMA Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year, Fiddle Patch (1998) Grammy Award, Best Bluegrass Album, with Ricky Skaggs for Bluegrass Rules! (1999) Grammy Award, Best Bluegrass Album, with Ricky Skaggs for Ancient Tones (2000) Grammy Award, Best Southern, Country, or Bluegrass Gospel Album, with Ricky Skaggs for Soldier of the Cross (2001) Grammy nominations with Ricky Skaggs (1999, 2002, 2004) North Carolina Heritage Award (2014) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2017) North Carolina Music Hall of Fame (2024)
Watch and listen
Hicks plays Roanoke with Bill Monroe. Listen for the double stops in the B part.
The Bluegrass Album Band plays Cheyenne, a tune Hicks first recorded with Monroe. His break shows the slid double stops that gave him his nickname.
What to learn from Hicks
Learn Roanoke from the 1950s Monroe recording. The melody sits in first position, and Hicks plays it with double stops in the B part that show how he built harmony into a tune instead of adding it later. The technique to steal is the slide into a double stop. Find a third on the A and E strings, start a half step low on both fingers, and slide up together as the bow starts. Practice it under a slow song at a jam before you use it on a breakdown. That one move puts more Hicks in your playing than any fast lick.
Sources
Bobby Hicks, IBMA award recipients Bobby Hicks, Grammy Awards Bobby Hicks passes, Bluegrass Today Happy 90th birthday to Bobby Hicks, Bluegrass Today Bobby Hicks inducted into the NC Music Hall of Fame, Bluegrass Today Bobby Hicks to receive NC Heritage Award, Bluegrass Today Artist2Artist: Bobby Hicks, are you really listening?, Bluegrass Today Bobby Hicks, Wikipedia Bobby Hicks, Texas Crapshooter, Discogs Bobby Hicks, Fiddle Patch, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more bluegrass fiddlers. Other Monroe fiddlers with pages here include Kenny Baker, Vassar Clements, and Byron Berline. Michael Cleveland and Aubrey Haynie carry his double stop approach forward.