Bands, Songs, And Shamanistic Rituals

Popular music was in a creative upheaval in the late 1970s. As the singer-songwriter and producer Chris Stamey remembers, “the old guard had become bloated, cartoonish, and widely co-opted by a search for maximum corporate profits, and we wanted none of it.” In A Spy in the House of Loud, he takes us back to the auteur explosion happening in New York clubs such as the Bowery’s CBGB as Television, Talking Heads, R.E.M., and other innovative bands were rewriting the rules.

"Yes, I know, I know I have already released a tribute to Jimmy Reed. Let me be the first to say that I know this. On the Jimmy Reed Highway was a joy to record with Jimmie Vaughan and all of my good friends who played on that release. But damn the torpedoes, Too Much is Not Enough is a completely different approach to Jimmy Reed. The common thread between the two releases is the incredible talent featured on the tracks. The players are so good that the music speaks for itself. The most important reason to release these songs: they are the last recordings I did with my good friend, Gary Primich. I had planned to do a Jimmy Reed tribute for more than 20 years. My original idea was to release an Omar and the Howlers record which featured guest artists playing on some of the tracks. Too Much is Not Enough is the result of this vision." - Omar Kent Dykes, 2012