Dan Hicks on the comeback trail
by Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., April 15, 2001) - Psychedelia was swirling around San Francisco in 1969, and Dan Hicks had a small but not insignificant part in its creation as a founding member of the Charlatans. The band was as noted for its outfits - one part Edwardian fop, one part Old West cowboy - as for its rootsy mix of electrified folk, blues, ballads and jug-band tunes.

But for Hicks, schooled in Santa Rosa as a jazz drummer, it was all just too loud. Shortly before the Charlatans released their first and only ill-fated, eponymous album, Hicks bailed to reinvent himself as the understated, acoustic-swing vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks.

Now, over 30 years later, Dan Hicks is enjoying that rare second act in American celebrity. Powered in part by a relentless touring schedule and last year's critically acclaimed comeback album, "Beatin' the Heat" (Surfdog), a throwback to Hicks's heyday with the Hot Licks, Hicks is riding a new wave of popularity, which brings him to Club Helsinki tonight [Saturday] at 9.

The Dan Hicks revival is also about to get an additional shot in the arm with next month's re-release of classic Hot Licks material on "The Most of Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks" (Epic/Legacy). The set includes the band's debut album, "Original Recordings," with seven previously unreleased tracks.

Following closely on the heels of "The Most of Dan Hicks," this summer will see the release of "Alive and Licking" (Surfdog), a recently recorded live album of new Hicks material. Clearly, we are in the midst of a full-fledged Dan Hicks comeback. But how does Hicks account for this unlikely interest in his elusive, wry, genre-defying acoustic swing?

"There've been periods where I had to convince the audience or win them over," said Hicks in a recent phone interview. "There's that whole kind of thing you have to go through no matter how well known you are, but lately it's been real good. There seem to be fans, a cross-section too, age-wise, people who dug it in the Seventies and people coming to see me for the first time. New fans.

"It's been good attendance, too. Pretty full houses everywhere. I guess my idea of a good audience is one that's quiet and listens, but also that's alive: they respond, they're getting the jokes, they're with me. And that' s been happening."

It happened in the beginning, in the early and mid-'70s, when Hicks and His Hot Licks released four albums, including 1972's "Striking It Rich" and 1973's "Last Train to Hicksville." At the time Hicks toured internationally, performed on TV shows hosted by Johnny Carson, Flip Wilson and Dick Cavett, and appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone twice.

Then, somewhat mysteriously, Hicks said goodbye to it all. He surfaced sporadically in the last 25 years as a solo performer, but it wasn't until last year's "Beatin' the Heat" that he reformed the Hot Licks, with original violinist Sid Page and the same instrumental lineup as the original band, including two female vocalists. Hicks is as bemused as anyone by his sudden rebirth as a commercially viable performing and recording artist. "A lot of it has to do with that that record, 'Beatin' the Heat,' was so well received. It was a good sound. It came out good, it didn't just come out OK. It wasn't just catching up with what I was writing lately."

In addition to a stack of new tunes in vintage Hot Licks style, the album included guest appearances by an eclectic range of performers, from Elvis Costello to Tom Waits to Rickie Lee Jones to Bette Midler to Stray Cats guitarist Brian Setzer.

"I reformed the Hot Licks, and in essence it was just adding girl singers for the first time in decades and hitting the road, playing out a lot with this six-piece band," said Hicks. "The advice through the years had been to have girl singers with me again, so I did that."

Hicks has always followed his muse, often counter to prevailing trends. At the height of electric psychedelia, he quit the Charlatans and went acoustic.

"My stuff was more of a folk coffeehouse thing, with more acoustic guitar, just me doing a single, and then adding on instruments and voices, with emphasis on lyrics and singing and light kind of acoustic jazz. It would seem it would be real different.

"But even though I was more of small club cabaret act, I did end up playing some of the big halls, like Winterland. There was an acceptance there, and I got into Rolling Stone like any other rock band." When it came time to record "Beatin' the Heat," which includes an updated version of the Hicks classic, "I Scare Myself," as well as a breezy version of Tom Waits's "The Piano Has Been Drinkin'," Hicks put together a dream list of performers he would like to record with.

"I just made a little list of people who I thought would sound good with me," he said. "Bette had done a few of my tunes previously, and Tom Waits I knew in the Seventies briefly.

"I was casual acquaintances with all of them. They were just folks who I thought I'd sound good with. The label suggested Brian Setzer, and Elvis, I knew he was a fan."

[This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on April 21, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]