Biography
Throughout a career spanning many decades, Dan Hicks ranked among the genuine eccentrics of modern music. Although grounded in folk traditions, his acoustic approach crossed numerous stylistic lines, incorporating country elements, call-and-response vocals, jazz phrasing, and generous doses of humor to produce an idiosyncratic and only intermittently released catalog that attracted a loyal cult audience.
Born on December 9, 1941, into a military family stationed in Arkansas, Hicks spent his formative years in California, where he played drums in several high-school ensembles. While attending college in San Francisco he changed to guitar and took up folk music, yet he resumed drumming upon joining the Charlatans, among the Bay Area’s earliest psychedelic outfits. Though the group lasted only briefly and released just one single, its influence rippled through the San Francisco scene, and it was among the first acts to perform at the storied Family Dog.
Hicks assembled the acoustic ensemble Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks in 1968 to open for the Charlatans, but the new unit quickly became his central focus. After recruiting two female backing singers known as the Lickettes, the band delivered its first album, Original Recordings, in 1969. Two further 1971 releases, Where’s the Money? and Striking It Rich, preceded 1973’s Last Train to Hicksville, the Hot Licks’ strongest commercial showing to date. At the height of their success Hicks disbanded the group, remaining out of view until 1978, when he issued the solo album It Happened One Bite, the soundtrack to an unfinished animated feature by Ralph Bakshi. He then moved in and out of the music business for more than ten years before returning with the 1994 live set Shootin’ Straight, recorded alongside a fresh ensemble, the Acoustic Warriors.
In 2000, more than twenty years after the original breakup, Hicks reconstituted the Hot Licks for Beatin’ the Heat. Alive and Lickin’ followed the next year, and after an eight-year absence he reappeared in March 2009 with Tangled Tales. In 2010 he applied his jazzy, hip sense of humor to holiday material on Crazy for Christmas, issued by Surfdog Records. Dan Hicks died at his Mill Valley, California, residence on February 6, 2016, at the age of 74.
Born on December 9, 1941, into a military family stationed in Arkansas, Hicks spent his formative years in California, where he played drums in several high-school ensembles. While attending college in San Francisco he changed to guitar and took up folk music, yet he resumed drumming upon joining the Charlatans, among the Bay Area’s earliest psychedelic outfits. Though the group lasted only briefly and released just one single, its influence rippled through the San Francisco scene, and it was among the first acts to perform at the storied Family Dog.
Hicks assembled the acoustic ensemble Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks in 1968 to open for the Charlatans, but the new unit quickly became his central focus. After recruiting two female backing singers known as the Lickettes, the band delivered its first album, Original Recordings, in 1969. Two further 1971 releases, Where’s the Money? and Striking It Rich, preceded 1973’s Last Train to Hicksville, the Hot Licks’ strongest commercial showing to date. At the height of their success Hicks disbanded the group, remaining out of view until 1978, when he issued the solo album It Happened One Bite, the soundtrack to an unfinished animated feature by Ralph Bakshi. He then moved in and out of the music business for more than ten years before returning with the 1994 live set Shootin’ Straight, recorded alongside a fresh ensemble, the Acoustic Warriors.
In 2000, more than twenty years after the original breakup, Hicks reconstituted the Hot Licks for Beatin’ the Heat. Alive and Lickin’ followed the next year, and after an eight-year absence he reappeared in March 2009 with Tangled Tales. In 2010 he applied his jazzy, hip sense of humor to holiday material on Crazy for Christmas, issued by Surfdog Records. Dan Hicks died at his Mill Valley, California, residence on February 6, 2016, at the age of 74.
Albums
Live
