On record, King Solomon Hicks is an effervescent character whose happy-go-lucky take on the blues, without sacrificing quality or depth, explores the more danaceable end of the genre. In interview, King Solomon Hicks is no less excitable. Pulled over in his car (he’s on the way to see his friend and producer Kirk), he exudes enthusiasm for music in all its forms, throwing out the names of artists that have influenced or inspired him and generally exuding an infectious positivity that is utterly irresistible.
The reason for our talk today is that, in a few weeks, King Solomon Hicks will be making his London debut (long overdue, when you consider his various trips to Europe), and his excitement is obvious, even down a line that crackles and echoes in a manner familiar to anyone who endured Zoom meetings throughout lockdown. Line difficulties notwithstanding, it’s such a joy to speak to an artist so obviously in love with the music they make and, over the course of our twenty minutes together, I get the firm impression that King Solomon Hicks is at least as much a fan as he is an artist, something that becomes all the clearer as he talks with such obvious passion about the importance of collaboration.
As a starting point, how did you feel you were equipped to handle the jump from being an aspiring musician to someone taking on professional gigs at such an early age?
You know, it was never really a jump – my dad worked all the time, and he supported my music (like taking lessons) and he saw that I was serious, you know – the guitar wasn’t left in the corner -and my mum went to all the clubs.
So, it was more like we went from jam sessions, when we would just go around and, if people needed musicians, some took the shot of having this kid – they saw it as a novelty – join the stage, It was like: “let’s try this kid out.” So, it went from jamming at The Lenox Lounge, which is in Harlem, and then one of my first shows was at the Cotton club and, from there, to the Apollo theatre and, you know, I always played the Cotton Club from, like, seventh/eight grade going into High School.
I was still working during High School, which got me the Kiss Kruise and a tour in Denmark and also Japan. I was always the kid at school with the guitar on his back, I always loved to play, and then I kept going and it goes by so fast, you don’t really keep up with it. People say “oh, you did this, and you did that…” but, err, my parents were both very supportive and it was never like I was forced on me. I wanted to learn jazz and I wanted to learn blues.
New York isn’t really a blues town, when you think of blues, you think of Clarksdale, Mississippi or Georgia or Texas, Memphis Tennessee. New York had this mixture of sounds, so growing up in New York, I liked a lot of hip hop, and my mum showed me stuff like Nina Simone and she knew about Santana, the guitarist, and she knew about Hendrix… she knew a couple of names, but in New York, you’ve got to learn Charlie Parker. Or some of my favourites – I love Chet Baker – and then, as I got older, I gravitated towards blues. I caught B.B. King in New York and I played all over the Tri State area and that led me up to doing the blues cruises and getting the chance to meet Joe Bonamassa and Eric Gales and Walter Trout – some of my favourite peers and idols. I’m a huge Marcus King fan and also Kingfish. Touring in Europe, I got to hang out with David Lee Knowles, King King, and Joanne Shaw Taylor, so travelling gave me a chance to check out the contemporary artists who are out there and doing it. I’m a huge Kenny Wayne Shepherd fan, and Keb Mo… Blind Boy Paxton – so I’m just glad to be a part of it… to make a long story long.
I love the fact that you came form a jazz background, because there’s that emphasis on being able to slot yourself in in any given scenario, so I imagine that must have helped a lot with jamming in the way you described.
One of the cool things that Jazz taught me was how to accompany other musicians and players. There’s a huge emphasis on the melody and harmony. I find myself, as a guitar player, wanting to scale back, whereas I think jazz can get deeper with rhythms. So, you play a song in 5/6 and you maybe insert this chord here… people have gone that whole Berklee Route, but I went my own way.
I did my touring in Denmark, and I’ve just always been a fan of making people move and groove. Even when I started at the Cotton Club, I did three songs. The first two songs were these Duke Ellington numbers – classic swing dance – but the last one was Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode, and that feeling of people getting up and that rock ‘n’ roll feeling, and it was that feeling that drives my soul. Maybe if I would have played saxophone, I would gone the smooth jazz route and R&B, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But as a guitar player, I wanted to hear, like, versions of the Rolling Stones records and if I had to choose any style of music to play for the next fifty-seven years of my career, it would be in that area. But, even with the songs off my new album (Harlem) there’s a foot in heavy guitar and a foot in heavy blues, I always wanted that sense of other music styles as well.
For me, one of the things I really enjoy about the blues, is the way artists have to try to find ways to play covers that respect the intent of the chosen song and yet make them their own at the same time and I think that’s quite a difficult line to walk.
Well, I’ve always enjoyed artist interpretations. I always like versions of songs I know that take me somewhere else. I just got back from hanging out in Memphis at the Blues Music Awards and Bettye LaVette was there and she does this cover of Bob Dylan’s Things Have Changed, and I told her – I didn’t realise it was anything other than a Bettye LaVette song!
Sometimes, when you hear a version by a different artist it becomes “the” version and you can go back and dig the original, or you can like both – so, I think everybody has their own take and I think it’s cool to hear people’s imprint.
So, you know, I’m a huge Blood, Sweat and Tears fan and the track, I love You More Than You’ll Ever know, I love their version, but I put my own spin on it, and I worked with the producer to really put it together and take it in a different direction. It’s for all the wives and the ladies out there and we get a lot of good feedback when that song is played on radio stations. Everybody has their own take on things, and I think it’s cool.
It’s a huge compliment for an artist, if they take a song that is so well known in other quarters and people think that it’s theirs, or that they’ve made it their own.
Yeah – the old becomes new again. New generations come along, and you never know what you might expose somebody to, or who might be revived. It’s nice to take songs that people haven’t heard in a while and take it in a whole new direction.
We were out watching Eric Gales and he was talking about (and a lot of blues musicians echo this) how the blues is about taking personal angst and pain and making something that brings other people joy and I was wondering how you feel about that as an interpretation of the blues and creating blues music?
The blues is not about the sadness and falling down so much as about how you pick yourself back up from that sadness and hitting rock bottom. Eric Gales is not somebody who went to school and studied his twelve-hour blues chords and now does his show (which is also fine – there’s nothing wrong with that); but the essence of all blues and what unites people from different cultures from around the world is that we all experience pain and stuff like that and, when you go through that, live through it and make the best of yourself and put it into the music, it kind of comes full circle with the blues.
And Eric is definitely someone who has written life into their songs. Some of my favourite blues players, like Peter Green, or when I think of Clapton or Albert King, those are artists that truly lived it. Even some of the modern guys, like Walter Trout, lived their lives and put it into their music. And even myself, when I play music, the older I get, the more I can put the feelings of those ups and downs into the music.
I always like to say I’m kind of the opposite of Gary Clarke Jnr, he has that serious thing going. I like more of the Chuck Berry, “get up and dance” approach. I like to focus on the danceable blues. Not necessarily up tempo, but stuff that can make you feel good, that’s uplifting and positive. We all get the downs, and I can tell you some downs right now, but I don’t want to trouble the listener’s ear, so I take it, and put it into the music. The world is not always a happy go lucky place, I realise that, but you put it into the music and you can say: “look, your car got broken into, and all your gear’s gone and now you can’t video the show, because they took the video gear but, you know what, you can get to the show you want to watch, you’re gonna get cursed out, but it’s going to be alright!” So, that’s the type of music I play for folks – that uplift the spirit.
You worked with Kirk Yano on your debut album, and I always think the relationship between the artist and the producer is an interesting one. You have to have a lot of trust in your producer because, obviously, they’re going to be making suggestions from the sounds to the music, so how did you agree on him as your producer?
Oh man, I went down to the crossroads at twelve o’clock, midnight and said I need a producer! [Laughs] No, I was playing a festival in Brooklyn, and it was really cool. One year they had Kingfish play and, one year, I played and one of the panellists was talking about blues history – he was a photographer – and he said “hey, I got this guy you should meet” and this was around 2014 or early 2015, and he was talking about Kirk. And we met and took a liking to each other, but I was still in school at the time. So, I graduated High School, and he saw that I was established, doing gigs around that time and we went to Spain together and we did a whole bunch of stuff and then we worked on the record.
It was my first time with a producer and, coming from the world where you’re just a musician, there was a lot of moving up a gear. I hadn’t really worked on my voice. My guitar was in a certain place and my music was in a certain place and Kirk showed me more music and we listened to songs, and we hung out together and it was like, yeah, we can make some really cool stuff. And Kirk, he’s worked with Mariah Carey and Miles Davis, and Public Enemy, and I don’t want to say anything about his three Grammys… but it is three Grammys and musically, it’s not just blues. Even though I love blues, I’m not necessarily a blues artist as if I’d grown up in Clarksdale or Memphis or Mississippi – if I just played that it wouldn’t be true to how I grew up and my musical background. So, Kirk’s flexibility is the same as my flexibility as far as the music goes. I like heavy beats, and I like different sounds and I like electronics. I don’t understand that world, but he does. And he plays great guitar, so he can fix it. He can point the direction. It’s almost like in golf, he can suggest which club to use. We play great shows, and me and Kirk have been everywhere together. We’ve done the Blues Cruise and we’ve jammed with Eric Gales and Jimmy Hall and Joe Bonamassa, so we’ve been in the trenches and fought many of our battles together.
So, yeah, you can probably see I’m parked up as I’m talking to you and I’m on my way to Kirk to work on our next batch of songs, and the last album was released on Provogue Records, and he did an amazing job. It’s the same record label as George Benson and Bonamassa, so we’re going to do a new batch of songs and we’re looking forward to it.
And, obviously, you’re also playing here in the UK very soon
We’ve played almost all over Europe – France, Germany, Spain and Denmark. This will be my first time in London and it’s my debut. It’s cool to have Toby Lee along as well and it definitely won’t be the last time in London.
You were talking about collaborating a minute ago and I know you did a collaboration with Eliza Neals, and I’m always interested in the process of collaborating with different artists because you get a different spin on your own sound, so how did that collaboration come about?
The first time I saw Eliza, she was playing with Trout. She was opening the show and that was somewhere downtown in New York City, and that was the first time running in to her, because Walter had asked me to play a couple of songs – and we’ve been talking to each other ever since and it was her idea to play a song called Sugar Daddy. We did a cool music video for it. She’s Detroit Royalty, as far as I’m concerned as far as how she sings the blues and plays the piano, and she did a couple of records with Joe Louis Walker.
But I think also, collaboration is a great way to get the next generation of kids, who listen to music, to listen to the blues – like Samantha Fish did a collaboration with TECH N9ine, it was like a huge record – and it kind of mixed hip hop and the blues. It makes it multigenerational, and people realise that the blues is not just for people of a certain age. I mean, what if Kanye West did a record with Buddy Guy, or Eminem did a record with Marcus King? That would bring like a whole new generation. And you know, once they’ve heard something like that, they may dig back to, like Muddy Waters and Johnny Winters and all that stuff. So, collaboration is what the art is about and the music’s about – it’s the spice of life, collaboration. Eliza Neals – I can’t wait until wee can play that song live together. I think it got to like number two in the Bluesville charts, so it did well.
There’s a nice synchronicity, to artists collaborating like that, because the classic hip hop artists used to sample all sorts of old blues and soul records.
Exactly. You can keep it relevant and if you see it on the stage, it’s something very cool.
You were talking about bringing young people into the blues and you did something recently for the Pinetop Perkins Foundation, so it’s obviously something very close to your heart, getting young people out there and playing?
Well, during the pandemic, we donated some cash, along with the Blues Foundation, just to make sure kids could get access to stuff. It was cool that we were able to help and during the pandemic, a lot of people wanted to help, and it’s definitely important that the older generation help the younger generation out because they can help keep the blues traditional, but on the cutting edge.
Someone like Samantha Fish, or Beth Hart… they’re doing a great job, Beth Hart had E-40 blasting before a show. I looked at the security guard, like this young kid, and I was like “man, she’s blasting E-40!” and it was that great mix. I’m sure, if she could get E-40 up on stage, they could have had a show and it would have been epic! Collaboration!
And, with that, we say our goodbyes and King Solomon Hicks continues on his journey to see Kirk. King Solomon Hicks plays his London Debut at the 100 Club on June 7th, 2022.
More Detail:
Hicks won the 2021 Blues Foundation Award for ‘Best Emerging Artist Album’ and has picked up support from the BBC Radio 2 blues show as well as plaudits from the likes of Classic Rock magazine who said “[Hicks] has Harlem under his fingernails and the touch of a natural-born bluesman. His fresh, clipped guitar style and vintage holler suggest an anachronistic soul man.“ It was Guitar Techniques ‘Album of the Month’ upon release praises him saying, “Harlem is a very strong album and Hicks really is one to watch out for,” whilst Powerplay magazine proclaimed“ Harlem is an album that showcases his extraordinary talents.” He has also picked up support from Blues Matters, Blues in Britain and more.
He has recently wowed audiences in the US with a run of shows including supporting artists such as Joe Louis Walker, Samantha Fish and Shemekia Copeland.
He grew up in Harlem “around a lot of great musicians,” he says. The city has been synonymous with vibrancy, art and music ever since the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. Music runs through the veins of the city, so there was no doubt that the young Hicks, who was only 6 years old when he started playing the guitar, was going to absorb those surroundings. By 13 he was on the stage at the Cotton Club, four times a week, as lead guitarist in the clubs’ 17 piece band and was already playing in legendary venues such as St. Nick’s in Sugar Hill and the iconic Lenox Lounge which Malcolm X had been a patron, and had seen the likes of Miles Davis and John Coltrane grace the stage.
His full debut, ‘HARLEM’ is produced by multiple Grammy Award winner Kirk Yano (Miles Davis, Public Enemy, Mariah Carey), and showcases Hicks as a writer, player and interpreter. Originals such as the roadhouse ready ‘421 South Main,’ the gospel shuffle of ‘Have Mercy on Me’ and the aching instrumental ‘Riverside Drive,’ he rubs musical elbows with staples such as “’Everyday I Sing the Blues’ and ‘It’s Alright,’ a Latin-tinged take on Blood, Sweat & Tears’ ‘I Love You More Than You Will Ever Know,’ a funked-up romp through Gary Wright’s ‘Love is Alive’ and a searing rendition of Sonny Boy Williamson’s ‘Help Me’ that closes the album.
TUES, 7th JUNE 2022
7.30pm – 11.00pm
£16 adv + bf
