The death of Dan Hicks at age 74 in early 2016 robbed us of one of the most distinctive singer-songwriters of his generation. Originally a drummer for the San Francisco-based band The Charlatans in the ‘60s, Hicks quickly broke away and formed the acoustic-based Hot Licks as a vehicle for his songs, which straddled a line between swing, country, folk, jazz and other genres. His tunes ranged from quirky/humorous/sardonic (“How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away?”) to nakedly romantic (“I Scare Myself”), and although his audience was never huge, it was unfailingly devoted.

The dozen tracks on this single-disc collection all come from later in Hicks’ recording career, the 2000s. The older tunes here, including the two aforementioned, as well as “Where’s the Money?” and “I Feel Like Singin’,” are remakes, some having appeared on the 2001 Alive & Lickin’ album. To call these versions inferior to the originals would be doing them something of a disservice; while Hicks had issues during his life that rendered some of his performances less than stellar, his recordings were always solid and his supremely talented accompanists never failed him. While it’s a bit off-putting to hear drums on the haunting “I Scare Myself,” the version holds its own here.

But the compilation’s main draw is the lesser known tracks, not the the rehashes. “That’s Where I Am,” a jaunty swing tune from 2004’s Selected Shorts (which included contributions from Willie Nelson, Jim Keltner and others), is as embraceable as anything from the Hot Licks’ early days, and “That Ain’t Right,” from the same album, is a virtual guide to virtuosic picking.