Tag: Dan Hicks

Maryann Price – Sweetheart (Waitress in a Donut Shop)

If that title looks familiar, we covered Maria Muldaur yesterday with her album Waitress in a Donut Shop. This is where Muldaur got the name for it. She released it a year after this version by Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Dan didn’t sing this but Maryann Price did. Her voice is very unique when she gets going. She doesn’t sound like everyone else.

Because of Christian, Randy, and CB, I have been really connecting with the jazz songs they have posted in the past and talked about. This is why I still blog because I love expanding my musical range and tastes. I will have to admit…as much as I like Maria Muldaur’s version of it…this version swings a little more.

I knew nothing about her until in the past few weeks when CB told me about Dan Hicks and his band The Hot Licks. She can easily cross genres and do about anything from Jazz to Pop to Swing. She has worked in many bands from Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks, Asleep At The Wheel, The Kinks, and more. I like her because she is different and caught my attention. Let’s find out a little about her.

At the age of 17, she was singing commercial jingles in her hometown of Baltimore. She moved on to sing jazz in Las Vegas and then moved to San Francisco in 1969. She soon joined Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks and along with Naomi Ruth Eisenberg (“The Lickettes”) as singers. 

The Licketts
Naomi Ruth Eisenberg and Maryann Price

In 1973 the band broke up and when they did…Ray Davies pounced on that opportunity. Davies asked her to come to England and record with the band. She stayed with the Kink’s for a year, touring extensively and recording…she sang on the album Preservation Act 2. When that was finished she returned to America and formed the Girtones with former Dan Hicks and The Hot Licks guitarist John Girton. In 1980 she joined the Texas band Asleep At The Wheel. 
 She has since gone on to a successful solo career based in Austin, Texas, and also reunited with Naomi Ruth Eisenberg for a live album in 2004 called Live At The Freight + Salvage.

Now back to the song at hand. This was on the Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks album Last Train To Hicksville released in 1973. I’ve been listening to this album on Saturday and it’s a combination of all kinds of music with Dan and the Licketts singing. I hear swing, jazz, pop, and more. The musicianship on this album is top-notch. The song was written by the songwriter Ken Burgan. Maryann is still going strong in Austin Texas.

Sweetheart (Waitress in a Donut Shop)

Sweetheart, but it doesn’t beat for meIt beats softly in love but not for meSweet lips I know I’ll never kissYou’re what I’m afraid I must miss

I’m a waitress in the donut shopI see him on his morning stopHe talks of love but he’s thinking of his sweetheartShe gives him a rough time

He gives me his dime and then partsSoft sighs, soft and pretty moansIn dreams I can make you my own

I’m a waitress in the donut shopI see him on his morning stopHe talks of love but he’s talking about his sweetheartShe gives him a rough time

He gives me his dime and then partsSoft sighs, soft and pretty moansIn dreams I can make you my ownIn dreams I can make you my own

Dan Hicks – I Scare Myself

A while back CB introduced me to Dan Hicks. The first thing I noticed about Dan was that he was countryish but not a standard country artist at all. He had this Country, Jazz, Bluegrass, Folk, and more thrown in there going on. I did notice he was off-centered compared to other artists. I’m thinking of a Zappa and Beefheart kind of artist with different influences.  He is one of the most fascinating artists I’ve run across. He also injected a great sense of humor in some of his songs. 

Dan HIcks was from Arkansas but his family moved to California when he was a child. He got interested in music and started off as a drummer. He transitioned to playing guitar and singing, and then he shifted toward folk and country music. He liked a little of everything from swing jazz to Western swing to folk music.

In 1965, Hicks joined The Charlatans (not the English Band), one of the pioneering bands in the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene. Though the group never achieved big commercial success, they helped create the counterculture sound. Hicks’ time with The Charlatans was short, as he eventually left to pursue his own musical direction.

In 1967 he formed Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks. Ironic that the band didn’t use a drummer. The Hot Licks broke up in 1973, but Hicks continued to perform as a solo artist and reformed the group several times in later years.

This song was on his 1972 album Striking It Rich along with another song at the bottom of the post called Moody Richard (The Innocent Bystander). He has released 16 albums between 1969 and 2013. He passed away on February 6, 2016, from liver cancer, leaving behind a legacy of musical innovation and humor that continues to resonate with fans and musicians alike.

He didn’t avoid mainstream completely. I did find a spot he did on the Flip Wilson Show. He was also an actor at times as well as he appeared in a few movies and television shows. 

I Scare Myself

I scare myself
When I’m without you
I scare myself
The moments that you’re gone
I scare myself
When I let my thoughts run

And when they’re runnin’
I keep thinking of you
And when they’re runnin’
What can I do?

I scare myself
And I don’t mean lightly
I scare myself
It can get frightenin’
I scare myself
To think what I could do
I scare myself
It’s some kinda voodoo

And with that voodoo
I keep thinking of you
And with that voodoo
What can I do?
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The Laughing Song
Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks
Lovin’ in My Baby’s Eyes
Taj Mahal
’Long Come A Viper
Dan Hicks & The Hot Licks

But it’s oh so, so, so different
When we’re together
And I’m oh so so much calmer, I feel bettеr
For the stars have crossed our paths forеver
And the sooner that you realize it, the better

Then I’ll be with you
And I won’t scare myself
And I’ll know what to do
And I won’t scare myself
And then I’ll think of you
And I won’t scare myself
And then my thoughts’ll run
And I won’t scare myself

Then I’ll be with you
And I won’t scare myself
And I’ll know what to do
And I won’t scare myself
And I’ll think of you
And I won’t scare myself
And my thoughts will run
And I won’t scare myself…

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