Fiddler Bobby Hicks on Stage at Lincoln Theatre Nov. 15

Flash back to New Year’s Eve, 1954.
To Nashville, Tenn. and in Bradley Studio gathered Bill Monroe and his Blue Grass Boys. Four songs recorded. First song, “Wheel Hoss.” Second song, “Cheyenne.” Then came “You’ll Find Her Name Written There” and “Roanoke.”
Classics all.
That day was fiddler Bobby Hicks’ first recorded session with Monroe.
Nearly 54 years later, the prolific sideman sits in with Lou Reid and Carolina to headline Song of the Mountains on Nov. 15 at the Lincoln Theatre in Marion, Va.
First back to that hallmark New Year’s Eve in 1954. Some musicians do not record a single classic, but Hicks was on four of them in one day.
“We did it all in one take,” Hicks said by phone Tuesday from his home in Marshall, N.C. “We had already worked all through the songs on the road. I just thought it was another bluegrass session.”
That’s Hicks for you, modest.
Yet, his considerable talent and cadre of achievements far surpasses whatever it takes to be termed a legend. He’s been a Blue Grass Boy, was a member of Porter Wagoner’s band during the early 1960s, in Mel Tillis’ Statesiders band shortly in the ’70s and capped his touring career with a couple of decades in Ricky Skaggs’ band.
Look back to when Hicks joined Monroe’s band.
“Oh hell, it was the greatest thing I’d ever heard,” Hicks said of Monroe’s sound. “Then, Bill Monroe treated me like his own son.”
Yet on came rock and roll. Like bloody meat clasped in the claws of a hungry beast, bluegrass nearly died amid rock’s rise in American culture.
“That’s why I had to quit Bill’s band, there was no money around,” Hicks said. “But I met Elvis, and I kind of liked him a little bit. Bill told Presley one time, ‘Boy, you can do my songs anytime.’ ”
From Monroe’s band, Hicks joined Wagoner’s band.
“I went with Porter for $35 a day, which was really good money then,” Hicks said. “But we only worked two days that first month I was with him.”
Hicks lasted for about a year with Wagoner. Time passed, and the 1970s came and went. Then as the 1980s took root, Ricky Skaggs left bluegrass for a revival of traditional country music. Hicks worked as his fiddler for more than 20 years.
“I cut a couple of albums with him, and then when he put together a country band I went with him,” Hicks said. “I was on all of his number-one records.”
Listen to Skaggs’ 1980s hits such as “Highway 40 Blues” and “Don’t Cheat in Our Hometown,” and you will hear Hicks.
By 2003, Hicks had notched scores of hits and millions of miles. He had played with the Father of Bluegrass, recorded with the late Jim Reeves and toured with future members of the Country Music Hall of Fame in Porter Wagoner and Mel Tillis.
“A lot of people ask me why I stayed on the road all that time, but you get kind of used to it,” he said.
And now?
“I am most proud of being retired,” Hicks said.

TOM NETHERLAND is a freelance writer. He can be reached at .

IF YOU GO
What: Song of the Mountains featuring Lou Reid and Carolina with Bobby Hicks along with Valerie Smith and Becky Buller, the Moron Brothers and Special Consensus
When: Nov. 15, 7 p.m.
Where: Lincoln Theatre, 117 E. Main St., Marion, Va.
Admission: $15
Info: (276) 783-6093
Web: http://www.songofthemountains.org