Omar & The Howlers

Biography

Omar & The Howlers is a hard‑driving Texas blues and blues‑rock band led by guitarist, singer, and songwriter Kent “Omar” Dykes, whose deep baritone voice and gritty guitar work have anchored the group for decades.[1][2][3] Dykes was born and raised in McComb, Mississippi, a town that also produced Bo Diddley, and he began playing guitar in childhood, forming his first band around 1963.[1][2][6] As a teenager he frequented juke joints on the edge of town, learning blues and R&B in rough clubs where gunfire was not unknown, and by his early 20s he had joined a rambunctious party band called the Howlers that played everything from R&B and rock and roll to polkas and western swing at frat parties across Mississippi.[1][2]

In 1973 Dykes helped form a new version of the group in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which evolved into Omar & The Howlers, a band increasingly focused on electric Texas blues, roadhouse rock, and boogie‑blues built around his own original songs.[2][3] Seeking a wider scene, the Howlers moved to Austin, Texas, in the mid‑1970s, joining a vibrant roots and blues community centered on venues like Antone’s and the Armadillo World Headquarters.[1][2] When the original Howlers lineup broke up in 1978, Dykes kept the name and rebuilt the band, releasing his first album under the Omar & The Howlers banner, “Big Leg Beat,” in 1980, followed by “I Told You So” in 1984; those records earned them consecutive Austin Band of the Year awards in 1985–1986 and helped establish them as a major regional draw.[1][2]

The group’s national breakthrough came with the 1987 Columbia Records release “Hard Times in the Land of Plenty,” a tough, groove‑driven blues‑rock album that reportedly sold more than 500,000 copies and brought the band an international audience.[1][2] Over subsequent decades Omar & The Howlers released more than a dozen albums, ranging from raw, Howlin’ Wolf–inspired electric blues to tributes that delve into older, more traditional styles, while Dykes also maintained a parallel solo career and toured extensively in Europe.[1][2] Critics have likened his booming baritone to a cross between Howlin’ Wolf and a menacing growl, and his sound blends Mississippi roots, Texas roadhouse swagger, and boogie rhythms influenced by heroes such as Bo Diddley.[1][2][6] Inducted into the Austin (Texas) Music Hall of Fame and the Texas Musicians Hall of Fame, Dykes remained a prolific recording and touring artist into the 2000s, though a serious skin illness in 2017 curtailed his ability to perform live, cementing Omar & The Howlers’ legacy as one of the stalwart modern blues bands to bridge the Mississippi Delta and Austin scenes.[1][2]

Fun Facts

• Before adopting the stage name Omar, Kent Dykes was nicknamed “Omar Overtone” by his bandmates because he liked to let his guitar feed back onstage while he dropped to the floor and spun on his back, a kind of oversized bluesman’s take on breakdancing sometimes fueled by alcohol.[1]
• In the early Howlers party‑band days, the group’s two saxophone players would perform in Henry Kissinger masks while the band mixed R&B, rock and roll, polkas, and western swing at wild college fraternity gigs.[1]
• Dykes has said that hearing the McComb high school band play the Bo Diddley beat in 1960 was the single moment that convinced him to become a musician, and years later he fulfilled that dream by sharing the stage with Bo Diddley himself.[2]
• Before making music his full‑time career, Dykes worked in a box factory and even made dentures for a dentist, jobs he took only to help pay the bills so he could keep playing music at night.[2]

Musical Connections

Mentors/Influences

• Bo Diddley - Major formative influence from childhood; Dykes heard the Bo Diddley beat played by his high school band in McComb in 1960, which convinced him to become a musician, and he later performed onstage with Bo Diddley with Omar & The Howlers. (General influence on Omar & The Howlers’ rhythmic feel and groove; live performances with Bo Diddley (no specific album cited).) [Influence beginning c.1960; live collaborations later in Dykes’s professional career (dates not precisely specified).]
• Howlin’ Wolf - Stylistic vocal and tonal influence; Omar & The Howlers’ raw, rowdy blues has been compared to Howlin’ Wolf, and reviewers describe Dykes’s baritone voice as reminiscent of Wolf in his prime. (Reflected broadly in Omar & The Howlers’ catalog, especially in the rough electric blues and boogie material (no single album directly cited).) [Ongoing stylistic influence throughout Omar & The Howlers’ recording career.[1]]
• Hound Dog Taylor - Template for raw, raucous electric blues sound that Omar shaped in the post‑Austin lineup of the band. (General inspiration for Omar & The Howlers’ early 1980s electric sound rather than specific tribute recordings.) [Early 1980s as Omar rebuilt the band in Austin.[1]]

Key Collaborators

• Jimmie Vaughan - Co‑leader and guitarist on a tribute project; prominent Texas blues peer connected to the same Austin scene as Omar & The Howlers. (Album “On The Jimmy Reed Highway” (credited to Omar Kent Dykes & Jimmie Vaughan, 2007); also featured on an episode of Austin City Limits tied to this project.[2]) [Mid‑2000s (album released 2007).]
• Nalle - Collaborator on a joint album project blending blues traditions. (Album “Chapel Hill” (credited to Nalle, Omar and Magic Slim, 2008).) [Late 2000s.[2]]
• Magic Slim - Renowned Chicago bluesman who recorded with Omar on a collaborative album. (Album “Chapel Hill” with Nalle and Omar.[2]) [Late 2000s.]
• Chris Duarte - Guest guitarist brought into the studio for Omar & The Howlers recordings. (Guest appearances on later Omar & The Howlers sessions (specific album titles not named in the cited biography).) [Primarily 1990s–2000s.[1]]
• Jon Dee Graham - Austin guitarist (True Believers) recruited as a studio collaborator. (Studio work on Omar & The Howlers recordings (albums not individually specified).) [1990s–2000s.[1]]
• Chris Layton - Drummer from Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble who recorded with Omar. (Guest studio appearances on Omar & The Howlers projects (titles not specified).) [Primarily 1990s–2000s.[1]]
• Tommy Shannon - Bassist from Double Trouble who collaborated in the studio. (Guest sessions on Omar & The Howlers recordings (specific albums not cited).) [1990s–2000s.[1]]
• George Rains - Veteran drummer (Sir Douglas Quintet, Antone’s house drummer) brought into Omar’s recording sessions. (Studio work on Omar & The Howlers releases for Antone’s and related projects.) [Primarily 1990s–2000s.[1]]
• Terry Bozzio - Highly regarded drummer (Missing Persons, Jeff Beck, Frank Zappa) who often worked with Omar as a “running‑mate” in the studio. (Recurring guest drummer on Omar & The Howlers recordings (specific album titles not listed).) [1990s–2000s.[1]]
• Malcolm “Papa Mali” Welbourne - Guitarist frequently invited into the studio as part of Omar’s circle of collaborators. (Guest appearances on Omar & The Howlers recordings (exact albums not specified).) [1990s–2000s.[1]]
• Gene Brandon - Drummer in the classic long‑running trio version of Omar & The Howlers that toured extensively. (Extensive touring lineup and recordings during the band’s trio years (including material from the mid‑1980s through mid‑1990s).) [Approximately early 1980s–1995 (in trio with Bruce Jones).[2]]
• Bruce Jones - Bassist in the long‑standing trio configuration of Omar & The Howlers. (Core touring and recording bassist during the group’s most active U.S. and European touring period.) [Roughly 12 years up to 1995.[2]]

Artists Influenced

• Younger Texas and European blues musicians (various, not individually named) - Omar & The Howlers are frequently cited in press and scene histories as stalwarts of the Austin blues and roadhouse tradition whose recordings and tours helped sustain interest in roots blues among later players, especially in Europe; however, specific individual protégés are not clearly identified in the available sources, so this influence is best described as scene‑wide rather than tied to named students. (Albums such as “Hard Times in the Land of Plenty” and later tribute records to classic blues material, which are referenced in discussions of modern blues revivalism.[1][2]) [Mid‑1980s onward, particularly during heavy touring in Europe and continued releases through the 2000s.[1][2]]

Discography

Albums

Top Tracks

1. Hoo Doo (Zoltar's Walk)
2. Honest I Do (feat. Gary Clark, Jr.) (Too Much is not enough)
3. I Gotta Let You Go (feat. Gary Clark, Jr.) (Too Much is not enough)
4. Full Moon On Main Street (Southern Style)
5. Hit the Road, Jack (SwingLand)
6. Bad Seed (Big Delta)
7. Snake Rhythm Rock (Southern Style)
8. Hard Times In The Land Of Plenty
9. What Can I Do (Zoltar's Walk)
10. Black Bottom (Muddy Springs Road)

External Links

• Spotify