Archive Review: Omar Dykes’ Runnin’ With the Wolf (2013)

Both as a solo artist and as the esteemed frontman of the Austin, Texas-based Omar & the Howlers, bluesman Omar Kent Dykes has made no secret of the artists that have influenced him. His 2009 solo debut, Big Town Playboy, is filled with classic blues and R&B songs from the likes of Eddie Taylor, John Lee Hooker, Ivory Joe Hunter, and others. A couple of years previous, Dykes had collaborated with guitarist Jimmie Vaughan on an acclaimed collection of Jimmy Reed tunes titled On The Jimmy Reed Highway, and the Howlers’ live performances have been known to include a Willie Dixon or Little Walter tune among Dykes’ spirited originals.

It should come as no surprise that Dykes’ second solo album would be a full-blown tribute to one of the singer, songwriter, and guitarist’s major influences and blues idols, the one and only Chester Arthur Burnett – better known to blues fans as the great Howlin’ Wolf. Dykes’ singing style owes more than a casual nod towards the Wolf, while musically you’ll also find a debt to Burnett running through Howlers’ albums like Big Delta or Boogie Man. Runnin’ With the Wolf pays its respects to the Mississippi-born blues great with fourteen performances of songs written by, or made famous by Howlin’ Wolf, with a single Dykes’ original thrown in for good measure.  

Omar Dykes’ Runnin’ With the Wolf

The album kicks off with Dykes’ greasy, gritty original ode to the Wolf, the title track a heartfelt tribute to the blues great that stitches together his well-known song titles into a sort of running narrative that’s delivered with a deliberate growl and a low-slung groove that offers up plenty of Dykes’ and Derek O’Brien’s slinky guitar licks riding shotgun to Ted Roddy’s blazing harpwork. Bassist Ronnie James slaps his acoustic bass with all the subtlety of a young Willie Dixon while drummer Wes Starr keeps steady time behind the other instrumentalists. It’s a fine way to open the album, the song capturing the spirit of Burnett’s Memphis days in both sound and ambiance.

From here, Dykes is off to the races with a veritable musical buffet of Wolf’s greatest hits. “Killin’ Floor,” with its familiar riff and rhythm, has been covered in one form or another by seemingly every blues-rock outfit, from Michael Bloomfield’s Electric Flag to Jimi Hendrix. Dykes and crew play it pretty straight, keeping the traditional sound and vibe while hanging a bit of fringe around the edges in the form of Dykes’ imaginative six-string flourishes. The Wolf’s signature song “Howlin’ For My Baby” is in good hands here, Dykes approximating both Wolf’s lusty vocals but also the song’s jaunty, upbeat tenor. Guitarist Eve Monsees adds some spicy licks, not unlike the great Hubert Sumlin, above the powerful backbeat pounded out by bassist James and drummer Mike Buck.

Smokestack Lightning

Burnett’s “Smokestack Lightning” was one of the first big late 1950s hits during the singer’s early tenure with Chess Records, and Dykes does the master proud with a lively, albeit menacing take that delivers all of the Wolf’s original malevolence, down to the anguished howls, as O’Brien picks out a mesmerizing, circular guitar riff and Roddy’s harmonica dances precariously atop the song’s rudimentary rhythms. Neither does Dykes ignore some of the Wolf’s lesser-known gems on Runnin’ With the Wolf, the up-tempo pace of “I’m Leavin’ You” belying the heartbreak emotion of the lyrics, bassist James and drummer Wes Starr laying down a healthy rhythm track for Dykes and O’Brien to embroider their entangled guitars throughout. 

Wolf’s “Do the Do” was always an underrated barn-burner in the Wolf’s catalog, and Dykes’ bangs it out with reckless aplomb, his gruff vocals rising and falling in counterpoint to the instrumental chaos raging on behind him, centered on Monsee’s monster guitarwork and saxophonist Mark Kazanoff’s blast of icy-cold emotion. The Wolf always had a lot of luck with Willie Dixon’s songs and, for the first half of the 1960s, he turned to the songwriter/producer almost exclusively, scoring hits with tracks like the ethereal “Spoonful,” probably the only performance here that Dykes doesn’t nail 100%. Dixon’s “Back Door Man” fares better, the band stringing out a Cajun-spiced rhythm behind Dykes’ gritty vox, but the Dixon-penned “Wang Dang Doodle” is one of the highlights of Runnin’ With the Wolf. A 1960 R&B chart hit for Wolf, who reportedly hated the song, it was a bigger hit for Koko Taylor a few years later. Dykes and gang sound like they’re lighting the juke-joint on fire with this version, rocking the song with an exuberant performance that rolls until dawn breaks before fading slowly into black. 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Dykes and the talented players he recruited for Runnin’ With the Wolf play it close to the vest with their performances, not trying to duplicate the original versions, but attempting to capture the magic that has made Howlin’ Wolf and his gang one of the most enduring legends of the blues. They do a great job, sounding enough like those old records to spark your imagination, but adding enough of their own flourishes that they truly pay tribute to the giant of an artist that was Chester Arthur Burnett. Kudos, Omar! (Provogue Records, released July 9, 2013)

 

Omar Kent Dykes