Bill and Libby Hicks were two of our best supporters as we got RAF going as a live music venue. Libby loved coming back “home”–she grew up in Tarboro, and we still have in our shop a glass display case from her family’s business there. It’s even better because a cracked corner of it has been repaired with a small stained-glass window effect made by Libby.
Richard Thompson’s excellent obituary of Bill, published in Bluegrass Today, includes this fond recollection from Missouri native Joe Newberry, who’s known to say he came to North Carolina as soon as he could after he heard about it: “My first night in North Carolina, I went to a party and remember thinking that the fiddler played just like Bill Hicks. Of course, it was Bill Hicks, and I sat in rapt attention the rest of the night.”
Bill’s webpage remains active, and it includes his wide-ranging and well-written blogs, links to several songs, and lots of music history. The featured photo of Bill and Libby above is from that page; the background image is a detail from Bill’s CD The Perfect Gig.