'Dan is a national treasure and one of America s great songwriters. Elvis Costello. 'Dan s songs were funny, serious, and entertaining, and the combo of old-timey folk, country, and jazz knocked me out. Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. 'Dan Hicks is like lightning in a bottle. Bette Midler. Dan Hicks didn t have his heart set on a career in music. It all just sort of happened to him. It didn t hurt, of course, that he was in the right place at the right time San Francisco, 1966 and had a front-row seat for the birth and death of the counterculture. Among other things, this is a classic story of the 60s. More importantly, it s a story of musical genius. By the time the Summer of Love limped to a close in the fall of 67, Hicks had quit the Charlatans the pioneering psych-rock band with whom he played the drums and turned to jazz, the music he d secretly loved all along, as he began building his own band, the Hot Licks. 'I just started taking ingredients I liked and putting them together to see what came out, Hicks writes. What came out was an amazing blend of complex time signatures, unusual instrumentation, and intricate vocal harmonies that took him to the top of the 70s rock world but also into a downward spiral of drink and drug abuse. Emerging from a long wilderness, which he writes about here with wit and candour, the man described by Tom Waits as 'fly, sly, wily, and dry eventually returned to recording and performing, making a number of acclaimed albums, including Beatin The Heat, a set of duets with Waits, Costello, Rickie Lee Jones, and more. Along the way, his music continued to subtly permeate the culture, turning up everywhere from The Sopranos to commercials for Levi s and Bic. Hicks passed away in early 2016, but his music, and the stories he tells here, remain as fresh and irresistible as ever. I Scare Myself takes readers on a journey behind the music, and into the life and mind of the fantastic artist who created it.

From the luxurious opening chords of the first track, even before Diana Krallhas sung a single beautiful note, her new Verve release- The Look of Love-will have you hooked. After winning a Best Jazz Vocal Performance Grammy for 1999's platinum-selling When I Look in Your Eyes, Diana Krall delivers her best album yet-a lush, cinematic collection of ballads and bossa nova tunes. Produced by Verve Music Group Chairman Tommy LiPuma, and featuring the London Symphony Orchestra arranged and conducted by the legendary Claus Ogerman, The Look of Love brings to mind such classic Frank Sinatra albums as In The Wee Small Hoursand Only The Lonely. But the elegant piano solos, the sensual vocals, and the wickedly modern sense of humor are, inimitably, all Krall. "Claus Ogerman and Johnny Mandel have been my favorite arranger/composers since I was seventeen years old," Diana explains. "So I said to Tommy LiPuma, 'wouldn't it be great if we could work with Claus on the next album?'" At the time, it seemed simply like another 'what if?' Sure, Ogerman had crafted landmark albums for Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, and Antonio Carlos Jobim, but the German composer had been retired from arranging other musicians' work-concentrating instead on his own piano sonatas and violin concertos-for almost 17 years. Then, when Diana was on tour in Munich, LiPuma arranged for her to have lunch with Ogerman. Struck by Diana's musicianship, and their mutual love of old movies, Ogerman took the project on. The film buff connection proved to be more than a coincidence; it influenced how Krall has grown as a singer. Her voice is richer than it has ever been and so is the feeling underneath each song. "There are passages in which she reminds me of Barbara Stanwyck," Ogerman told The Los Angeles Timesrecently. "She's acting the words great, the way Sinatra did. While he was singing, he was acting out the lyrics, and Diana does the same thing." From a smoky rendition of "Cry Me A River," to the heartbreaking tenderness of "I Get Along Without You Very Well," to a Spanish-language version of "Besame Mucho," and her sultry rendition of the title track, The Look of Loveis the album that Diana Krall fans have been waiting for. Of The Look of Love, Krall says: "I was so creatively pumped. We recorded so many tunes; I wish we could have released a double record... This album is my dream come true."