One day in 1987, as I was browsing through the racks at a local record store, my eyes fell upon a new album, Hard Times in the Land of Plenty, by a band called Omar & the Howlers. I loved the group's name, which seemed to fill what I was looking for -- well, am often looking for under these circumstances: a recording that appears at once traditional, innovative and close to a distinctive artist's heart. Something, in short, that reminds me of things I love but adds something new.

Suffice it to say Hard Times did not disappoint. Though it was not the band's first release, it was the first I'd heard. More releases followed (I reviewed several) until 2017, when a mysterious disease, described unnervingly as "flesh-eating" in the press accounts I've seen, drove "Omar" Kent Dykes, a native of McComb, Mississippi, and in his adult life a beloved member of the Austin scene, out of active participation in the music business. What's Buggin' You? marks his return to the studio after a six-year absence.

The disease proved undiagnosable, thus the sort-of jokey title here, a quote from Bo Diddley's wry "Crackin' Up," the single non-original. But Dykes, as is his wont, turns to favorite influences, mostly venerable blues, old rock 'n' roll and Louisiana swamp pop. He travels with a bunch of early/mid-century blues singers in the seven-minute history "Clarksdale, Mississippi," starting the journey with Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and Willie Brown and rolling with their vision of American music to Memphis (Howlin' Wolf), Chicago (Muddy Waters) and on to other places the blues trains took them. Elsewhere Dykes addresses his illness, though not explicitly, in "Thousand Pound Gorilla" and in the more hopeful "The Runnin' Man," in which he considers his long career with justified pride.

As always the current iteration of the Howlers provides Dykes with crisp, soulful back-up and never, whether one speaks figuratively or literally, misses a beat. I appreciate the point particularly in "Lone Star Boogie," which looks back to those 1950-'60s celebrations of a particular genre or practice (usually rock 'n' roll, sometimes country or r&b, sometime styles of fashionable dances) whose purpose is to make you feel good about just how much joyful stuff is out there. Here, Dykes and crew just about persuade you to move to Texas lest you miss out on something you will want to hear or do.

The "Howlers" in the title lets you know that Dykes's vocals take their inspiration from Howlin' Wolf's, though they are not nearly as menacing. Dykes can write and sing serious songs, but this time around he's in good cheer and humor, mostly. Few living bluesmen are as much fun at this. "Hidin' Out in Memphis," though, is a grim, tradition-inspired outlaw blues ballad; if not for the electric guitars, it's like something you might have heard on an Alan Lomax field recording. Be warned: it'll scare you.

One can only hope, it should go without saying, that there's more Omar & the Howlers in our collective future.