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Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks | |
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Dan Hicks is a multi-instrumentalist from the San Francisco area, who began his musical calling in various local folk and jazz bands in the mid-1960's. From 1965- 1968 he played in the Charlatans. One of his band mates of that group was violinist David LaFlamme, who later went on to form It's A Beautiful Day. Dan started playing drums at age 11 and switched to guitar at age 20, although he continued to play both, as well as harp and keyboards throughout his music career. In early 1968 he formed the drummer-less group Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, which was modeled on Django Reinhardt's quintet, as an opener for the Charlatans. Soon the new band became his primary project. With a pair of female backing vocalists - "the Lickettes" - the group released it's debut album Original Recordings on Epic in 1969, but it flopped. After a series of personnel changes, the group was signed to Blue Thumb in 1971. They released three albums - 1971 Where's the Money (recorded live at the Troubadour in LA), 1972 Strikin' It Rich, and 1973 Last Train To Hicksville (their first with a drummer) and their most successful. Hick's music blended western swing, jazz, ragtime and pseudo-nostalgia song writing. He became known for compositions like "How Can I Miss You" and "Walkin' One and Only" (which was covered by Maria Muldaur) however by 1974 Hicks had disbanded the Hot Licks at the height of their popularity. The Hot licks had toured internationally and appeared on several hi profile television shows of the day - Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett and Flip Wilson. The combined success of these ventures also helped land Hicks on the cover of Rolling Stone two times throughout his career.
Hicks carried on sporadically in the Bay Area as a solo artist sometimes billed as Lonesome Dan Hicks. He released It Happened One Bite in early 1978, which was the soundtrack to an uncompleted feature by animator Ralph Bakshi (later of Heavy Metal fame). He then phased in and out of the music industry for more than a decade, and did not issue another major recording until 1994's Shootin' Straight, a live recording cut with a new band, the Acoustic Warrior. In 2000, over two decades after the group's dissolution, Hicks reformed the Hot Licks and issued Beatin' The Heat.
Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks are back with a vengeance on his first studio production in over twenty years, with Beatin' The Heat. A star studded lineup of special guests contribute to this epic recording, including Elvis Costello, Brian Setzer, Tom Waits, Rickie Lee Jones and the Divine Miss M
Bette Midler! The current version of the Hot Licks includes Sid Page - violin, Greg Bissonette - drums,
Tom Mitchell - guitar, Kevin Smith - upright bass and the Lickettes on background vocals - Jessica Harper and Karla Devito. Devito is known for her solo work and also as the female voice on Meat Loaf's "Paradise By The Dashboard Light". As has been his longtime trademark and style, Hicks continues to write originally and evoke the country/jazz/folk/swing sound that you'll not hear anywhere else.
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Longtime fan, huge admirer and present day label owner, Dave Kaplan of Surfdog Records, convinced Dan to speed up his "slow comeback". In fact, Kaplan ended up co-producing Beatin' The Heat with Gary Hoey. Said Kaplan, "it was genuinely heart-warming to see the respect so many others have for Dan's work, which became very evident throughout the recording of this album".
Dan Hicks, who wrote most of the songs on Beatin' The Heat, includes Tom Waits' "The Piano Has Been Drinkn' (Not Me) ". Waits doesn't sing on this track, but does on "I'll Tell You Why That Is". Waits trades versus with Hicks on this lament that benefits from a clever violin melody. Sounds like they had a good time laying this track down. Humor is a big part of Dan Hicks and there is plenty of it going around on Beatin' The Heat. "Hell I'd Go" Brian Setzer plays some cool jazzy licks on "I Don't Want Love", which tells the story of the tribulations of giving up all the foods that tend to make one grow large. Rickie Lee Jones shares the mic with Dan on "I Scare Myself". This song tackles the miltary-industrial complex which is eating away at our society . Rickie also helps out on "Driftin" , which reminds us all to take some time for yourself and share some stress free moments each and every day. "Strike While It's Hot!" features Bette Midler on vocals and Hicks calls this duet one of the great pleasures of his career. The song tells a story about seizing the opportunity to change things for the better. "Meet Me On The Corner" showcases Elvis Costello and Brian Setzer. One of the more up tempo numbers, Elvis and Dan trade lines in this song about someone trying to maintain their grip while struggling with adversity.
Throughout his decades-long career, Dan Hicks stood as one of contemporary music's true eccentrics. While steeped in folk, his acoustic sound knew few musical boundaries, drawing on country, call-and-response vocals, jazz phrasing and no small amount of humor to create a distinctive, albeit sporadic, body of work which earned him a devoted cult following. Hicks' off center point of view and playful melodies perfectly compliment his quirky lyrics and complex rhymes and jive vocabulary. Unsure of where his off beat songwriting style came from, he does admit that he's never tried to copy anyone and that he tries to phrase things originally. Beatin' The Heat is a terrific return to form for Dan Hicks and a triumphant comeback. When Dave Kaplan handed Dan Hicks a blank check and said "let's make a record!", Hicks said that the gods of All-Things-Possible had smiled on him once again. I think that the gods have smiled on us all !
By Stephen Marsh, CanEHdian.com 2001
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