Omar and the Howlers, Bamboozled: Live in Germany

It’s been twenty years since I last saw these guys play live– back then it was in Nacogdoches, Texas, at a place called The Market — and since then have maintained only a peripheral interest in their music, but I was curious to hear the difference two decades and over a dozen albums makes.

Bamboozled isn’t the first Omar and the Howlers album to be recorded live in Germany — apparently they have quite a following overseas, especially in the Scandinavian countries and Germany, where Omar’s cowboy style and gravelly voice have made him an iconic Texas bluesman. Kent Dykes, the howling man known as Omar, is a prolific singer/ musician in a great tradition; he plays wild, raucous music that rambles through rock, country, and blues, incorporating influences from Bo Diddley, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and Stevie Ray Vaughn, among others.

At fifteen songs, this seems a long set for a live album, but there aren’t really any new songs or overwhelming changes to distinguish this album from past ones (it’s been only two years since the last live album was released). Aside from a fanatic whistler in the otherwise fairly reserved audience, it’s often easy to forget that this was a live event; every song is polished and tight, and the sound is excellent, but the downside of this is that there is little to no improvisation or alteration of what are, by now, quite familiar songs. Everything sounds fine-tuned and really rocking, which is enough maybe for hardcore followers, or a great introduction for anyone new to Dykes’ music. In the end, casual fans may find this album superfluous, a greatest-hits endeavor by an artist who has already gone down that road. Still, for what it’s worth, there are few if any songs here that don’t really deserve to be included in a greatest-hits compilation, and one hell of a compilation at that. And it grows on you somehow.

At times, Omar seems a little toned down here from earlier days. He’s mellowed out, the growl subsiding into a more pensive voice, but not to say in the least that it’s lacking in soul. Then again, at other times he’s wildly rocking, his voice thundering, ecstatically and howlingly contorted. He breathes life into his guitar, as in “Mississippi Hoo Doo Man” and “East Side Blues,” a pure blues jam in the line of Led Zeppelin. It may not be the first track to stand out, being somewhat more understated than others, but is one which should not be overlooked; there are moments here which are actually beautiful. Howlers Jon Hahn and Barry Bihm are in seriously fine form, too. The nearly six-minute instrumental “South Congress Blues” (“a true story,” according to Dykes) is just one instance wherein Bihm justifies the existence of bass players everywhere, and the drumming here is completely primeval, in the best possible way — “Magic Man” is another in the same vein. What it comes down to is just simple, straightforward, kick-ass blues rock.