Description
Label Review.
Previously unreleased 1988 debut album sessions. Features Mikael Rickfords (The Hollies) and Mick Taylor (The Rolling Stones).
Our Overview.
Carla Olson's singing and producing career spans several decades and countries. The custom-made Azureglo-blue Rickenbacker guitar on her hip has become as recognizable a trademark as her long blond hair.
Born on July 3, 1952, and raised outside of Austin, Texas, Olson was obsessed with the Rolling Stones as a teenager. She often went to roadhouses with her father, where he had a few drinks and she listened to the music. In the late 1970s Olson teamed with Kathy Valentine to form the punk band the Violators. After some success, they decided to try their luck in Los Angeles in 1979, where they started the Textones, and released a few singles on IRS's Faulty Products.
In 1983 Olson got a huge break when Bob Dylan chose her to appear in his "Sweetheart Like You" video. During the filming she began a friendship with guitarist Mick Taylor, who had once played with the Rolling Stones before leaving them in 1975 to pursue a solo career. The Textones made their major-label debut the following year with Midnight Mission. The album won critical acclaim but little airtime, despite studio help from Don Henley, Ry Cooder, Barry Goldberg, and Gene Clark. Response to the album's videos, however, was sufficient to launch a tour of the United States, Europe, and Japan.
Olson released an acoustic album in 1987 with Gene Clark, So Rebellious a Lover, on Rhino. The recording features tracks on which Olson backed Clark on three of his pieces, and Clark backed Olson on three of her pieces, as well as some covers. The album was well received, and the two played gigs to promote it, often working together. The duo planned another album, but Clark passed away suddenly in May of 1991, before they could follow through.
In 1988 Olson released her first solo album ‘Rubies And Diamonds’, a recording on which she was backed by the Swedish rock band Wilmer X. Carla explained in a statement how the album came about “Out of the blue our Swedish label, Volume Records, threw us a wild pitch - come to Sweden and record with Swedish rock stars Wilmer X. The result became my first solo album recorded in the country of my father's roots. The Wilmers' had just scored a hit record in their homeland and were gracious to back this Texas by way of L.A. rock and roll woman. My co-writers on Rubies And Diamonds include guitarist George Callins and drummer Rick Hemmert of the Textones, Danny Wilde of the Rembrandts, Danny Tate (whose songs have been covered by Tim McGraw, Rick Springfield, the Smithereens, and Jeff Healey), and George Green, who co-wrote some of John Mellencamp's best including "Hurts So Good."