Muddy Springs Road [Audio CD] Omar and The Howlers

Kent "Omar" Dykes has rid himself of the annoying mannerisms which spoiled his earlier blues-revival albums. The Texas-based bluesman has stripped down his arrangements and disciplined his vocals to pare away the excessive, self-aggrandizing flourishes. What remains, on Muddy Springs Road, is a single-minded emphasis on rhythmic grooves and on Dykes's deep, raspy baritone. For this album, Dykes abandoned his customary trio format to lead a septet of Austin all-stars, including such notables as harmonica player Gary Primich, keyboardist Nick Connolly, and drummer George Rains. The larger number of musicians behind him must have convinced Dykes he didn't have to do everything himself, for he plays and sings with far more restraint than he has ever displayed. From the Hooker boogie of "Midnight Ramblin' Man" and the Slim Harpo swamp sound of "Life Is Just a Circle," to the Chuck Berry riff of "Get Hip" and the Bo Diddley beat of "Hoo Doo Ball," Dykes's rhythms are derivative but admirably executed. Dykes wrote all 11 of the album's songs, but his musical ideas are borrowed and his lyrical ones are trite. The title track, for example, is supposedly an autobiographical look at his childhood on the Mississippi Delta, but it simply serves up such clichés as "Used to spend my days down across the tracks where the whiskey was white and the blues was black." --Geoffrey Himes