Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks, interestingly, got its start as a warm-up band for the Charlatans. Family Dog founder of Chet Helms, made it all happen.
"At a certain point, the Charlatans were kind of falling apart, there was no good management, didn't seem to be any future in it. Nothing was materializing, nothing was getting better. I was only fond of the music up to a point. Rock and roll wasn't really my love."
"So I sort of took this single act thing and expanded it. I got together with a violinist and a bass player, to see if they could accompany me. We did it, essentially, to make a little demo of tunes. But then I started getting a couple of gigs, that kind of thing, and added the girls, a female accompaniment came to mind. I was listening to Sergio Mendes, stuff with female voices on it, and I kinda liked that. The bass player's wife sang, and she had a friend, and we gave that a shot, started doing gigs this way. Actually, there was no violin yet, it was just two girl singers, a bass and guitar. We did a thing at the New Committee Theater in North Beach [San Francisco] and got a good review from Ralph Gleason. I was still in the Charlatans at the same time, and had to make a decision. I figured I shouldn't do the Charlatans anymore, this new act would allow me to do all my songs, and I was beginning to get more prolific. Having other voices to write for, even just by ear, was very inspiring. So I started writing 'I Scare Myself,' and that kind of thing."
I first heard Dan Hicks and His Hot licks on a bootleg tape when I was overseas in the military. When I returned, I discovered he moved to my hometown in Marin, and when he wasn't running the open mike at the Old Mill Tavern, he was warming a bar stool at the Brothers Tavern, my watering hole back in the day. We acknowledged each other, nothing more. Fast forward twenty years: My party caught Dan Hicks and his Acoustical Warriors. During intermission we went back stage, my wife to talk her cousin, the violin player, and my friend, an accomplished steel guitar and saw player to talk shop with Paul Mehling, lead guitarist, about his slick Selmer guitar. Dan Hicks may have felt snubbed because my wife had a history with him, and my friend was repeatedly asked to join his band, so he talked with me like we were long lost friends.
I sorely miss Dan Hicks. And his outrageous shoe collection, too (we wore the same size clown shoe)
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