ShareThisThe first time I saw Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks was on a PBS television program in the early 1970s. The TV picture was black-and-white, but it seemed like it was in color. Hicks and his all-acoustic band were performing amid a tropical motif with big fake palm trees and a beach scene as a backdrop. The female singers would trade off vocals and hide behind Hicks swaying their arms, turning him into a multi-armed god of acoustic swing. Hicks was playing a style of music that was totally out of sync with the hard rock that was going on at the time.
"It seemed like regular stuff to me," says Hicks in a phone call from his home near San Francisco. "I've never purposely done something that was retro and thinking 'We'll play this old-timey music and have this old-timey look.' It was just what I liked. If a backdrop was this big color beach scene, I just liked the way it looked. If I wore a certain pair of pants or a tie or the girls wore something, it was just what we liked."
After breaking up the Hot Licks in 1974 and only sporadic appearances on record for a quarter-century, Hicks returned in 2000 with the album "Beatin' the Heat," which included guest spots by admirers Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Rickie Lee Jones, Bette Midler and Brian Setzer, and was his first CD since 1973 credited with the Hot Licks. Hicks' newest disc, "Twisted Tales" is due for release March 24.
Hicks grew up listening to country-western and swing. He initially played drums, but picked up guitar at 19, and began writing original songs and performing in coffee shops.
In 1965, he joined a rock band called the Charlatans -- local legends who broke up before fulfilling their expected role as the first great rock act to emerge from San Francisco.
In 1968, Hicks formed the Hot Licks, which featured a hot violin player (first future It's a Beautiful Day founder David LaFlamme and then Hot Licks stalwart Sid Page) and two female vocalists.
"I wanted to see what was going to happen with the girls singing along with me," says Hicks.
Hicks' songs generally fell (and still fall) into the "lighthearted" category -- often funny, but not jokes. They're solid songs.
"'Light' is a good word for it," says Hicks. "I like to think of the whole show as light. That seems to come more natural. I've done other songs, though. I've been depressed before. I've written songs that I call 'folk noir.' I got a few o' those!"
Among Hicks' most lovable numbers are "Payday Blues," "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away" and "I Scare Myself."
"Some of those tunes still go over," says Hicks. "People still laugh in the same places. That's an endorsement."
Hicks says he was never idle during the time that fans heard little from him. He was happily living in Mill Valley, Calif., doing a few shows with his band, the Acoustic Warriors ("basically the Hot Licks without the girl singers," he says) and recording music for some commercials.
"Twisted Tales" features several new songs.
"I used to write a lot more," he says. "Now I write when I think there's a need. I came up with a lot of my best stuff a while back, but I still write some good ones. The process is still the same. I get the guitar, get a little rhythm going, have a phrase in mind, maybe start humming a little melody, maybe add some words. I sit down. I get up and say, 'There's another masterpiece! I've done it again!' I give myself a high five in the mirror."
(Wayne Bledsoe of the Knoxville News Sentinel in Tennessee may be reached at Bledsoe(at)knews.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com)
