Johnny Hickman

Hickman is best known for co-founding the band Cracker. His fiery lead guitar sound and spirited co-writing gave flavor to that band's alternative radio hits, including Teen Angst, Low, Get Off This, and Eurotrash Girl. Cracker, founded in 1991 with childhood friend David Lowery, has eight full-length releases to date. Kerosene Hat (1994) remains an alternative music collection staple. Lowery and Hickman together are seen as godfathers of the alternative music scene, who turned gently away from plaid-clad grunge in the 1990s with more countrified and bluesy stylings. Their collaboration with the jam-band Leftover Salmon in 2003 further proved that no one genre could contain them.Prior to his tenure in Cracker, Hickman toured as a solo/folk acoustic performer, had a brief stint in the Unforgiven (a tongue-in-cheek-Western guitar rock band), and co-founded the Inland Empire (California) cult band the Dangers. Influenced by punk rock, surf guitar, and true Bakersfield country, Hickman's sound is often imitated but never perfected by anyone but he and his signature 1978 Les Paul. In 2005 Johnny released his first solo CD "Palmhenge" (Available for purchase at Campstoverecords.com) receiving high praise from America's number 1 rock critic Robert Christgau. It received "Voice's Choice" in The Village Voice as well as a great review in Blender magazine.Occasionally, Hickman ventures away from solo work and Cracker to spearhead side projects, such as All Thumbs Trio (with moe. guitarist Chuck Garvey, and East Coast guitarist Gibb Droll), the Hickman-Dalton Gang (a classic country project with Railbenders singer Jim Dalton) and Crazysloth, his Arizona-based band which contributed a song to the Bruce Springsteen charity benefit CD "Light of Day" before disbanding. Film and TV work to date include one full film score for the independent River Red, as well as the placement of Lowery/Hickman songs in several popular films.