When the Hot Licks return to Sweetwater Music Hall on Thursday, July 3, they won’t just be dusting off Dan Hicks’ songbook—they’ll be conjuring the man himself.
From his sly wit, genre-melding melodies and swing-era soul, the man’s music will once again fill the room, delivered by the seasoned musicians with whom he shared his estimable oeuvre.
Paul Robinson, longtime Hicks collaborator and keeper of the Hot Licks flame, describes the project with devotion. “The musical experience we’re sharing is very much aligned with Dan’s intentions—we’re playing (mainly) his songs the way he personally taught us to play them,” he says. “To play Dan’s music took extracurricular knowledge of all those genres which we were all happy to learn more about. There’s also that spike of Dan’s musical signature and the sprinkling of that essential humor. It’s a surprisingly specific sound, but we love it and love carrying it forward.”
That “specific sound”—a concoction of jazz manouche, western swing, folk and a whole lotta tongue-in-cheek—is what Hicks dubbed “folk-swing,” and the Hot Licks have preached it across decades and zip codes. And now it’s returning to the Sweetwater.
“Dan Hicks and all his variations go way back in the Sweetwater’s history,” Robinson recalls. “Jeanie Patterson had the original place on Throckmorton—it definitely had a funky charm, and the players that went through there over the years were formidable. Dan Hicks and the Acoustic Warriors played there a bit. Dan put together Bayside Jazz around ’96, playing mainly jazz standards which he dearly loved.
“Bayside Jazz played around 30 Sunday afternoons at the Sweetwater in 2006. We were one of the first bands in there (Bayside) when it moved to its present location on Corte Madera on the first floor of the Mill Valley Masons. (I’m a Mason—another link). Dan’s last Bayside Jazz gig was there in 2015. This is maybe the first time the Hot Licks have officially played there. Exciting,” he adds.
Robinson, whose fingerprints are on nearly every post-’90s Hicks project, has evolved from sideman to spiritual steward. “My perspective changed a lot—from being a side-gun to helping him with his charts, MDing the Warfield and Davies Birthday gigs, returning full-time to the Hot Licks in 2010 and being a close friend at the end was a profound journey,” he says. “There was/is really nobody like Dan. He’s a Bay Area musical treasure, and it was a great privilege to work beside him for so long.”
When Hicks reassembled the Hot Licks in the early 2000s for a new run on Surfdog Records, Robinson became the translator of the maestro’s mind.
“While Dave Bell & Tom Mitchell played most of the Hot Licks guitar from 2001 to 2010, I was Dan’s scribe on all those albums,” Robinson says. “He trusted me to relay all the music from his mind to all the great musicians on those records. His arrangements and the sound he wanted was concise, and it took a long time before he trusted one with it—the present Hot Licks work hard to sustain his standards.”
Even in Hicks’ absence, his aura lingers—especially onstage. “Aw. We miss him tons,” Robinson says. “But we feel his presence in the room when the swing heats up. Love you, Dan.”
The Hot Licks’ upcoming Sweetwater show promises to be “a gas,” in Robinson’s words. “Dan’s tunes and style—faithfully and lovingly delivered,” he says.
The Hot Licks play live at 8pm, Wednesday, July 3, at Sweetwater Music Hall, 19 Corte Madera Ave., Mill Valley. Doors open at 7pm. Bar and restaurant open before the show. Tickets available at sweetwatermusichall.com.
