Throughout his decades-long career, Mister 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. He attended college in San Francisco, where he switched to guitar and began playing folk music. He returned to the drums, however, when he joined the Charlatans, one of the Bay City’s first psychedelic bands. Although the Charlatans were short-lived — they issued only one single during their existence — they proved influential throughout the San Francisco musical community and were one of the first acts to play the legendary Family Dog. formed the acoustic group Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks in 1968 as an opener for the Charlatans, but soon the new band became his primary project. After adding a pair of female backing vocalists — “the Lickettes” — the group issued its debut LP, Original Recordings, in 1969. After a pair of 1971 records, Where’s the Money? and Striking It Rich, they issued 1973’s Last Train to Hicksville, which proved to be a very successful album for the Hot Licks. This is a re-visit conversation for Mr. Hicks and I as I welcome him into New England for a July 26th show in Fairfield, a July 28th show in Northampton, and on July 29th at the Barn in Brooklyn CT. We have a few laughs and there is some talk of new material and the potential arrival of a potential new album.
Genius Hurts: Ask Dan Hicks.
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