In 1927, a Columbia Records promotional photo showed a man in a stark white chef's hat and floor-length apron holding a massive 12-string guitar. He looked like a novelty act. He was Robert Hicks, better known as Barbecue Bob, and beneath the manufactured gimmick was one of the best-selling recording artists of the 1920s Piedmont blues scene. Born in 1902 in Walnut Grove, Georgia to sharecroppers Charlie and Mary Hicks, Robert learned the six-string guitar in the kitchen of neighborhood matriarch Savannah Weaver, known as Dip, alongside his brother Charlie Hicks and her son Curley Weaver. In 1924 he moved to Atlanta, switched to the booming 12-string to cut through noisy urban rooms, and took a job at Tidwell's Barbecue, where he entertained customers until Columbia talent scout Dan Hornsby came to see him.

His debut Barbecue Blues quickly  ...