Bobby Hicks won the North Carolina state fiddle championship at age 11 playing Black Mountain Rag, then joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in 1953 and was handed an upright bass instead of a fiddle. This episode follows how that willingness to pay dues led to a December 1954 recording session on fiddle with the father of bluegrass and a career that stretched more than fifty years.

Born in Newton, North Carolina in 1933, Hicks absorbed the competitive fiddlers conventions of his childhood, learned the smooth, sliding Nashville swing style from session player Dale Potter and layered it over Monroe's drive, served in the Army, left for Porter Wagoner, and spent seven years on the Judy Lynn Show in 1960s Las Vegas. He returned to anchor Ricky Skaggs' band for 23 years beginning in 1981, joined the Bluegrass Album Band with Tony Rice, J.D. Cro ...