Dan Hicks

Dan Hicks started out as a drummer, eventually filling that seat for the legendary San Francisco psychedelic act the Charlatans. Hicks left the Charlatans to pursue a solo career, issuing his first record in 1969. Using acoustic instruments almost exclusively, Hicks fashioned a sound that he's used as a template for his career so far. His music is a genial, breezy blend of jazz, folk, Swing and Tin Pan Alley pop that easily evokes artists as different as Hoagy Carmichael, Django Reinhardt and Hank Williams. Hicks wraps his elastic tenor vocals around slyly funny songs that are bolstered by subtly brilliant playing.