Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks

Dan Hicks was always that half-in-the-bag guy at the end of the bar in the rumpled Hawaiian shirt, the one who came on to your date when you were taking a leak: “C’mon, baby, dump that chump, ’cause I’m just a loner with a boner tonight.” He’s been milking this swing shtick since his hippie days with the Charlatans—not the neo-psych limeys, but the Haight-Ashbury/Virginia City band. Hicks still sounds like an old singing matinee cowboy who’s been possessed by the spirits of Slim Galliard and Slam Stewart, who breathed some Voutie McVout into his soul. He’s got a couple of new Andrews Sisters-style backup singers, and Willie Nelson and Jimmy Buffett drop by for cameos. The only original Hot Licks member here is violinist Sid Page, who plays Stephane Grappelli to Gonzalo Bergara’s Django Reinhardt.