Rob Ickes

Robert Gilchrist Huenemann

January 6, 2006

Back around 1980 I lived in San Bruno. Neal and Edith Thompson had a weekly jam session there. Neal played the fiddle. Edith played piano and accordion, and MC’ed many fiddle contests all over California.

The Thompsons had two grandsons. One played banjo, and the other Dobro. That was Rob. He was barely a teenager at the time. He already had a powerful command of the instrument. He didn’t spend much time looking at it. Instead, his eyes were all over the room, reading the other musicians. If there was a space for a fill, he jumped on it. But even at that age he never stepped on anyone’s toes.

No one who attended those jam sessions was surprised when the awards started rolling in for this remarkable young man.

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