Dear John, Found this interview with Omar in my browsing and realized we've not heard a lot from him as of late. He's been one of my heroes since the '70s. Enjoy the read.
Glad to hear Leon J's show at Phoenix Theater went well. Good to see him back in action.
We're past the half-way point for hellish weather and most of us have survived. Things will really start hoppin' come September and beyond.
We have a PBS fundraiser scheduled at the Rhythm Room on Sept. 2. We've got a slew of talent lined up with more being added every day. Perfect way to spend your Sunday afternoon and help a good cause.
Remember...AZ Blues Showdown prelime are Sept. 17 so start honing your act and take a shot at a trip to Memphis for the IBC.
In the meantime, stay cool...
Sincerely, Jim Crawford, PBS
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| | | Omar & the Howlers have been a mainstay of Texas Blues for many years.
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OMAR
by Alan White
Alan: What were your first music memories growing up in McComb, Mississippi? Omar: In McComb music was always present. I didn't really know why and I couldn't tell you blues from pop music when I was a kid, I didn't know any difference. But there was a lot of blues where I was from and McComb is on the Illinois Central Railroad so a lot of the people who lived there would go up on the train and live in Chicago for a year or two. They'd go up with an acoustic guitar and they'd come back with an electric that had 4 pick-ups on it. All the bands in McComb were electric blues bands and I didn't identify that because when you are a kid you just think that everywhere in the world is like the place where you are at. But it got into my blood real early and I identified later that I was playing blues. Of course, where I was from everybody played everything. Black men played country music, white men played blues. Everybody mixed it up and you got to the point where you could play everything and that was kinda fun. That's my memory of being 7 years old and getting a guitar. I wasn't really all that interested in it, and I didn't really do much on it so my Dad sold it. When I got to about 11, I really wanted a guitar then and I told my Dad and said, "Well you had one and I could hardly get you to play it". So I wailed, "But if I had one now, I'd play it!". And it was true, so he got me an acoustic guitar for Christmas and I was ready then. I couldn't put it down. Alan: Were you still in McComb then? Omar: Yes, I was there until 1972 and then I moved to Jackson, Mississippi and then to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and then to Austin, Texas. Alan: What made you move to Texas? Omar: Well, the band was called The Howlers, it weren't called Omar and the Howlers, that was a different band. We wanted to move somewhere and play and we were scared to death of New York, scared of Los Angeles, didn't fit in in Nashville so we came out to Austin. The premier music in Austin was called Outlaw music, you know like the wheeling and wailing and stuff but they had a really great sub-culture that was blues and the blues sub-culture was what we were drawn to. We moved up and played a couple of years and that band dissolved but I kept the name 'The Howlers' and put my name with it, and that was the start of 'Omar and the Howlers' in 1978. The Howlers started in 1972 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Alan: How did you get the name Omar - where did that come from? Omar: We used to be a party band, drink whiskey, play crazy stuff, wear funny outfits and they called me 'Omar Overtone' so I had a Gibson guitar and I'd play all the speedback stuff, fall on my back drunk so they called me 'Omar Overtone' and my wife got me a guitar strap for Christmas that said 'Omar' and it just stuck. So now if somebody calls me by Kent Dykes, my real name, I don't even hear it. Alan: You used to hang out in the juke joints at a very early age to soak up the music. Wasn't that risky at that time? Omar: No, everybody did it. That was the name of the game where I was from. You hung out where all the music was. It wasn't until the civil rights movement of '62 or '63 that it got to where I couldn't go to the black parts of town and hang out. But before then, everybody did. Alan: Music transcends, doesn't it. Omar: Yes, music transcended all of that and being from south Mississippi as well ... a lot of the stuff that happened in Mississippi got a bad rep because of press. All the black people and white people got on great actually. But all the tension and stuff, and the civil rights workers and people coming down trying to change things instantly made it blow up. And that's a big myth about the south, you know we all act like we were slave owners. Some of my best friends were black and we got along great but when you got somebody trying to force something in that quick and that hard .... and something that a lot people just didn't understand is that where I was from a lot of the older black people wanted segregation too. They wanted their own clubs and their own restaurants and stuff, and we never hear anything about that, ever. Alan: I've toured the South quite a lot and visited McComb. I was there when they announced that Bo Diddley had died and that was quite freaky.
Omar: Well you know who is from McComb? Me, Bo Diddley, Snoop Dogg, Britney Spears. Britney Spears is from Kentwood Louisiana, about 17 miles from McComb; she went to a private school in McComb. I'm gonna make a Bo Diddley tribute record and get Snoop Dogg and Britney along! I'll bet Snoop Dogg would like Bo Diddley. Alan: When you started in Austin there were a lot of other bands there - Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmy Vaughan.... Omar: Oh yes, Stevie and Jimmy, W C Clark... They were all in and out of Austin. Alan: Is 6th Street the main street up there? Omar: Well, 6th Street is the party street where college kids go and get drunk. 6th street when I moved there in '76 was a dangerous place with pawn shops, black blues clubs and Mexican clubs. So when I knew 6th Street back then it was a different thing. Back in '79 the City bought up a lot of it and made it a tourist attraction. It wasn't a tourist attraction when I was there! Alan: Who has influence you the most in your music writing and playing? Omar: That is a horror question because there have been so many. I'm a Bo Diddley freak, then you've got Jimmy Read, Eddie Taylor, Hound Dog Taylor, Carl Perkins... I've just been a sponge for music. And I've got to play with a lot of these people, like Carl. I never got to play with Jimmy Read but I'd have liked to. Howlin Wolf I like a lot ... Muddy, Elmore James, I can get you a long piece of paper. I've been playing music so long that different parts of your life you dedicate to people. I couldn't listen to anything but Bo Diddley for 5 years. It's almost like you go to college for music because there's been so many times when I've got on one artist and I just couldn't get enough of it. And I think it was a study without even knowing it, you know. Alan: Your album, Boogie Man, was mainly a collateral with your friends I believe? Omar: Boogie Man was a lot of my song-writer buddies from Austin. All kinds of different types of musicians. They were all my friends so I said, "Let's get together and we'll write a song" and I'm gonna make a record and put all these songs on it. That was a lot of fun Alan: I know that you tour extensively - do you still enjoy it. Omar: I enjoy playing but I don't enjoy travelling. You'd be hard pressed to find anybody that's done more miles than me. I've been on every airplane, every bus, every train, and I used to love travelling but I've had enough. When I'm on stage I love it but I don't always love getting there. Alan: It's getting harder to travel these days. Omar: It is getting harder and I'm older. I'm 60 and I'm still a tough guy but not as tough as I used to be. We used to drink whisky and chase women and stay up all night and still play, but those days are gone. Alan: How healthy do you think the blues scene is in the UK and Europe compared to the US? Omar: It's different. I think Europeans view blues differently to Americans you know. I know a hell of a lot of European friends used to come over back in the '70s and they thought there'd be people playing resonator guitars under trees, and they were saying, "Where is it??". And a lot of people fly into Memphis and they go down Beale Street and they think they've seen the blues. But that's tourist crap, and you see what commercial entrepreneurs present as the blues a lot of times. The real blues is the guy sitting on the porch with the harmonica and the guitar playing because they love it, playing for their friends, you know. Music was just part of their life. You think, somebody like Robert Johnson, it's just all music but he had relatives and he hung out with his friends. When I was a kid, about 14, I went to Houston Stackhouse's home and played with him and Joe Willie Wilkins. I didn't know who they were, I was 14, and they were talking about Robert Johnson, but I didn't know who he was and I didn't know till 15 or 20 years later and I so wished I'd have known then. I was playing with legends who were friends of Robert Johnson. I didn't know Robert Johnson from a sack of corn back then. All that stuff we know now, we didn't know back in '64. Alan: We have a lot to thank the researchers for. Omar: Clapton found those first two records and he saw the significance of it. There were old blues guys all over the place I could have gone and talked to, but like I say I didn't really know what blues was. I didn't know blues from anything else and just thought that music was music. Alan: And it was just on your doorstep down there in Mississippi too. Omar: Well, it was so close I couldn't see it. Where's the blues? I can't see it. Alan: Back in the '60s we had the British Blues Revival and we were just desperate to hear some blues but we just couldn't get hold of it. There's been a great migration of people going over to Mississippi to see the places. I went to Avalon recently to hunt out John Hurt's place. I pulled up and saw this shack and got chatting to this old guy and he was saying "Oh yes, John Hurt, he ran the farm up the road and he'd come here on a Saturday and play his guitar on the porch." Omar: Yeah, I think that's what Neil was talking about; I just love Jimmy Reed but if you see his house it's a one room apartment in Chicago that didn't have any heat! Alan: How do you see the future of blues music, do you see it changing? Omar: Well I'm amazed that it's 2010 and there's still festivals.Thank God people are still here. I don't think it'll ever be the big thing but I think it'll always be bubbling under the surface and if you want to play it and hear it there will always hopefully be somewhere you can go. Europeans have done a lot to keep it going, more than the Americans. The Americans ruined it by making it into a circus like Beale Street. People who go to Memphis don't go to hear blues, they go there to buy t-shirts and salt n' pepper shakers. And if you ask what they heard, they don't know. If I was there I'd want to hear music, I got salt n' pepper shakers already. I think that's kind of a shame. But at the same time I say that, if those people hadn't done that in America then it probably wouldn't exist at all. Why don't they promote some of the guys who are alive now? You know I love the ancestry of the Blues more than anybody but they could promote the guys now instead of just talking about how great everybody used to be. Those guys would have wanted to keep going with all of us playing. Alan: So, what about the future for yourself? Touring? Omar: Oh, I'm winding down my career a little bit now. I've had a great time playing but I can't see me really travelling now like I've been travelling for the last 30 years. I won't quit, I'd like to do special gigs, but I don't want to just be out on the road all the time looking for a job. I've been an itinerant Blues man for 30 to 40 years and I've been everywhere and done everything and I ain't got anything to prove. I want to do a Bo Diddley tribute record, I want to do a Howlin' Wolf tribute record and people go, "Why do you just want to do tribute records?" but it's because I've done everything else and I just want to play the stuff I want to play and do what I do. I'm 60 years old and it's time for me to do what I want to do.
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| | Out & About Tuesday, July 25 Chuck Hall (acoustic), 7 p.m., The Lounge, Phoenix Carvin Jones, 7 p.m., Dirty Blonde, Chandler Wednesday, July 26 Jim Robertson's Birthday, 8 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Paris James, 5:30 p.m., II Vinaio, Mesa Carvin Jones (acoustic), Uncle Monkey's, 7 p.m., Mesa Bad News Blues Band, Every Wed., 9:30 p.m., Chicago Bar, Tucson Thursday, July 27 Arizona Blues Project, 8 p.m., Harold's, Cave Creek Carvin Jones, 8:30 p.m., The Lounge, Phoenix Friday, July 28 Cold Shott & the Hurricane Horns, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Rocket 88s, 8 p.m., Brass Rail, Phoenix JC & the Juke Rockers, 6:30 p.m., Taco Guild, Phoenix Hoodoo Casters, 6 p.m., Desert Eagle Falcon Field, Mesa Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., Murphy's Law, Chandler Paris James, 6:30 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Mesa Saturday, July 29 Sugaray Rayford Band, 9 p.m., Rhythm Room, Phoenix Big Daddy D & the Dynamites, 7 p.m., Raven, Prescott Chuck Hall (acoustic), 6 p.m., Local Jonny's, Cave Creek Blues Review Band, 8 p.m., Culinary Dropout, Scottsdale Carvin Jones, 8 p.m., All American, Scottsdale Eric Ramsey, 9 a.m., Roastery, Scottsdale Nina Curri/Doug Schultze, 3 p.m., Timbetlake Tavern, Flagstaff BluZone, 1 p.m., Crown King Saloon, Crown King Front Page Blues Band, 7 p.m., Talking Rock CC, Prescott Paris James, 6:30 p.m., D'Vine Wine, Chandler Sunday, July 30 Big Daddy D & the Dynamites, 4 p.m., Steel Horse, Phoenix Nina Curri/Doug Schultze, NOON, Cruiser's, Williams True Flavor Blues, NOON , Copper Star, Phoenix Monday, July 31 Carvin Jones (acoustic), 6 p.m., Monastery, Mesa |
Weekly Jams
Sunday
JAM, Flip Side Blues Band, 7 p.m., Dirty Diablo, Mesa
Bourbon Jack's JAM w/Kody Herring, 6 p.m., Chandler
MONDAY
Bam Bam & Badness Open JAM, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
TUESDAY JAM Sir Harrison, 9 p.m., Char's, Phoenix
Rocket 88s, 6 p.m., Hideaway West, Phoenix
Gypsy's Bluesday Night JAM, 7 p.m. Pho Cao, Tempe
Tailgaters JAM, 7 p.m., Glendale
WEDNESDAY Rocket 88s, 7 p.m., Chopper John's, Phoenix Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Draw Bar,, Phoenix
Bumpin' Bud's 1st & 3rd Wednesdays JAM, 7 p.m., Marc's, Glendale
THURSDAY Tool Shed JAM Party, 7 p.m., Steel Horse Saloon, Phoenix Jolie's Place JAM w/Adrenaline, 9 p.m., Chandler Brad's Place JAM, 7 p.m., Ahwatukee (Every other Week)
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