Throughout his lengthy tenure in music, Dan Hicks ranked among the genuine oddities of his era. Though rooted in folk traditions, his acoustic approach crossed numerous stylistic lines, incorporating country elements, call-and-response vocals, jazz phrasing, and generous doses of wit to produce an unmistakable yet irregularly released catalog that cultivated a loyal following of admirers.
Born December 9, 1941, into a military household stationed in Arkansas, Hicks spent his formative years in California, where he played drums in several high-school ensembles. He pursued higher education in San Francisco, shifting to guitar and exploring folk material, yet resumed drumming upon joining the Charlatans, among the earliest psychedelic outfits to emerge in the Bay Area. Though short-lived and limited to a single release during their run, the Charlatans exerted considerable influence on the local scene and ranked 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, though the new group quickly became his central focus. After recruiting a pair of female backing vocalists known as “the Lickettes,” the band delivered its first LP, Original Recordings, in 1969. Two further albums followed in 1971—Where’s the Money? and Striking It Rich—before the 1973 release Last Train to Hicksville, which stood as the Hot Licks’ strongest commercial showing. At the height of their success, however, Hicks disbanded the group and remained largely absent until 1978, when he surfaced with the solo effort It Happened One Bite, composed as the soundtrack to an unfinished animated feature by Ralph Bakshi. He moved in and out of the industry for more than a decade afterward, issuing no significant new material until the 1994 live album Shootin’ Straight, recorded with a fresh lineup called the Acoustic Warriors.
In 2000, more than twenty years after the original breakup, Hicks reassembled the Hot Licks for Beatin’ the Heat. Alive and Lickin’ appeared the following year, and after an eight-year absence he returned in March 2009 with Tangled Tales. The next year he applied his jazzy, hip sense of humor to seasonal fare on Crazy for Christmas, issued by Surfdog Records. Dan Hicks died on February 6, 2016, at his Mill Valley, California, residence; he was 74.
