Robert Hicks (September 11, 1902 – October 21, 1931), known as Barbecue Bob, was an American Piedmont blues musician who played 12 string guitar which was popular in the Atlanta, Georgia area at the time.

[1] One of the two existing photographs of him shows him playing his guitar and wearing a full length, white apron and cook's hat.

As was usual with other blues singers, he recorded a few traditional songs and spirituals including "When the Saints Go Marching In", "Poor Boy, Long Ways from Home" and "Jesus' Blood Can Make Me Whole".

Hicks developed a "frailing" style of guitar playing more often associated with the traditional claw hammer banjo (as did his brother, and, initially, Curley Weaver).

[3] Hicks had some influence on Atlanta blues musicians such as the young Buddy Moss but his way of playing was quickly overshadowed by the finger-picked Piedmont blues style which rose in popularity by the late 1920s and early 30s; this development can be heard in the recordings of Curley Weaver and the Reverend Gary Davis.

John Fahey attributed his arrangement of "Poor Boy a Long Ways from Home" to Hicks in his 1979 Best Of book of tablature.