Rob Ickes is one of the best dobro players in recent music history. Listed alongside music legends like Jerry Douglas, Josh Graves and Mike Auldrige, Ickes has established himself as both a solo artist and as part of a band.

Ickes was raised in a suburb of San Francisco in a musical family. He first discovered a passion for the dobro (resophonic guitar) after he listened to the first solo album of Mike Auldridge. He loved it and began to absorb the sounds of dobro legends like Jerry Douglas, Bashful Brother Oswald and Josh Graves.

Ickes began his professional music career and toured with names like the Lynn Morris Band, Weary Hearts and Alison Krauss and the Cox Family. He also played on the albums of several artists, including Tony Furtado, Claire Lynch, Laurie Lewis, and the Cox Family. Ickes formed his own band, Blue Highway. In 1996, Blue Highway released its debut album, It's a Long, Long Road.

The project made one of the biggest debuts in recent bluegrass history and went to the top of the bluegrass charts. The album also earned the International Bluegrass Music Association's (IBMA) Album of the Year award. The same year, Ickes won the IBMA's award for Dobro Player of the Year, an honor that had been given to Jerry Douglas six years earlier.

During 1997, Ickes released his solo debut, Hard Times. The project was produced by Tim Stafford of Blue Highway, and featured three different bands beside the solo sounds of Ickes. The singles, "Tom Dooley," "One Bad Case of the Blues," and "Hard Times," were accompanied by Ickes' Blue Highway bandmates. The other band on the album included a reunion of Union Station.

Other featured artists were Viktor Krauss and Larry Atamaniuk who contribute the blues sound to the single, "Flatt Lonesome," and jazz to the song, "Look-Ka Py Py." The album also showcases the first ever recording of Ickes' lead vocals. Ickes released his next solo project during 1999. The album was titled Slide City, and came out on the Rounder label. In 2002, he released What It Is.

Rob Ickes has established himself as one of the legendary dobo players in music history. His efforts as both a solo artist and part of the band, Blue Highway, are giving Ickes a large fan-base and critical acclaim.