First-ever Gene Clark Solo Live Album, Never Before Released

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Carla Olson is at the vortex of three live CDs due for June 10 street date on Collectors' Choice Music. The first of these historic volumes is former Byrds guitarist/songwriter Gene Clark receives a posthumous release of Silverado '75 — Live & Unreleased. The second is an expanded edition of Carla Olson & Mick Taylor's Too Hot For Snakes, the live album recorded at 1990 with a host of blues/rock superstars. And finally, there is Carla Olson & the Textones' Detroit '85 — Live & Unreleased, the never-before-released chronicle of a Detroit concert.

• Gene Clark — Silverado '75—Live & Unreleased: 1974 was supposed to be the breakout year for former Byrds singer/songwriter/frontman Gene Clark. David Geffen had signed him to Asylum Records, offering a $100, 000 budget. He took the money to his home in Mendocino and came back to Geffen with only eight tracks. Geffen was none too pleased and lent the album little or no promotion. When it peaked at #86 on Billboard's album chart, Clark and his band, the Silverados (featuring Roger White on guitar and Duke Bardwell on bass), toured the country. There was no support and the venues weren't first-rate, but the shows were steaming. According to annotator John Einarson (author of Mr. Tambourine Man: The Life & Legacy of The Byrds' Gene Clark), the band "stripped the songs from No Other down to the basics and redefined them in Appalachian Mountain triad harmonies and country-flavored arrangements." The 1975 Denver show recorded for this album represents Clark's first solo live album (there was another with Carla Olson some 10 years later). Featured are two co-writes with Bernie Leadon of the Eagles ("She Darked the Sun, " recorded by Linda Ronstadt and "Train Leaves Here This Morning, " covered by the Eagles on their debut album). The live set also features Byrds songs "Here Without You" and "Set You Free This time, " and the title track to No Other. Other songs include "Silver Raven, " "Long Black Veil, " "Kansas City Southern" and "Spanish Guitar."

Olson says: "There have been many bootlegs of Gene Clark live gigs but Silverado '75 is the first authorized live album ever. All eras of his career are represented: The Byrds, Dillard & Clark, the solo years. I love this record. I love all three of these CDs in fact! So will you."

• Carla Olson & Mick Taylor — Too Hot For Snakes (Plus): Mick Taylor, best known for his work with the Rolling Stones, John Mayall, Bob Dylan and, in later years, Carla Olson, teamed with Olson for a one-time concert at Los Angeles' Roxy in 1990. The band consisted of Ian McLagan (Faces), Barry Goldberg (Electric Flag) and blues harp maestro John Juke Logan. The deluxe reissue expands the original 1990 live album with a number of tracks from Olson's various studio albums — all of them featuring Taylor. Taylor's Rolling Stones influence is felt on this album, which features an unreleased track, "Winter, " a highlight of the Stones' Goats Head Soup, and twice as long here. There's a rare, released-in-Japan-only version of Mississippi Fred McDowell's "You Gotta Move, " made famous by the Stones on Taylor's watch. And finally, there's a seven-minute version of "Sway" (a Sticky Fingers song) that gives Taylor a chance to finish the solo that was faded on the Stones' version. Mick Taylor's signature solo song, "Broken Hands, " is here, with a riff that is totally Stones. And former latter-day Hollies member Mikael Rickfors duets with Olson on the song "Kinderwars." The Los Angeles Times reviewed the album thusly: "Imagine the Stones in their bluesiest early '70s mode complete with lots of cigarette smoke swirling up from the guitar necks but led by a really nice gal . . . at home in exile on the Sunset Strip."

Carla Olson says, "Mick Taylor and I began a long recording relationship in 1990 with our live at the Roxy album. I followed that with three solo records all of which featured Mick. With "Too Hot For Snakes (Plus)" we combine the Roxy album in its entirety along with a second disc of tracks from the three solo releases. Mick is simply brilliant throughout."

• Carla Olson & the Textones — Detroit '85—Live & Unreleased: This never-before-released volume from Carla Olson's '80s roots-rock band, The Textones, was a Westwood One recording set live at Tracks in Detroit during the band's tour behind the A&M/Gold Mountain album Midnight Mission. Kathy Valentine had left the Textones by this point, but Olson managed to recruit Phil Seymour (Dwight Twilley Band) as the band's drummer and on two tracks ("Looking for the Magic, " "Back in Time") the lead vocalist. Among the highlights are "Clean Cut Kid, " the song Bob Dylan gave Carla for appearing in his first-ever music video ("Sweetheart Like You"). "Number One Is To Survive" was a staple of the live work Olson did with Gene Clark. Also included are "Back in Time, " penned by Steve Hufsteter of The Quick, Little Steven's "Under The Gun, " John Fogerty's "Rockin' All Over The World" and the Clarence Carter soul classic "Slip Away." The album has no overdubs nor doctoring — what we hear is what went down.

Olson concludes, "If I do say so myself, the 1984-85 era Textones was one helluva band. We were particularly good after touring Europe. While working our way back to the west coast we recorded a concert in Detroit for Westwood One. We've known the tapes have existed for years but only recently we were told that a digital master was ours for the asking."

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