Product Review

Although the title might be questionable, this compilation of Hicks's 1969 debut Epic album, Original Recordings, with seven tracks intended for an unreleased follow-up is manna for longtime fans. The Hot Licks' eccentric combination of folk, country, and old-timey parlor music with often Zappa-esque absurd humor still sounds fresh today, perhaps because it already sounded apart from its time 30 years ago. Hicks recorded two of these tracks for last year's excellent Beatin' the Heat comeback, but Original Recordings is the one that put him on the map. It's the one college kids listened to in dorm rooms while doing whatever throughout the first half of the 1970s. It's the one that inspired Thomas Dolby to cover and score an alternative hit with "I Scare Myself." "Milk Shakin' Mama" remains one of Hicks's all-time best efforts, and, with one exception, the demos fit right in, each of them a newly discovered gem. A true hippie classic. --Bill Holdship