Carla Olson has had a long and varied career. In the late 70s she was a member of new wave band The Textones with future Go-Go’s bassist Kathy Valentine; in the 80s, she recorded an album with Byrds legend Gene Parsons, and also co-wrote ‘Trail of Tears’, a track from guitarist Eric Johnson’s breakthrough album ‘Tones’. At the turn of the 90s, she recorded solo albums and played live with Rolling Stone Mick Taylor. Into the twenty first century, her on/off career went into overdrive as she continued recording as a solo artist, but also became a renowned producer. Those are just a few potted highlights from across several decades, but it’s fair to say there’s far more to Olson than an easy tag of “country singer”.
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ROBERT REX WALLER, Jr. – See The Big Man Cry
In 2016, Robert Rex Waller released his solo debut ‘Fancy Free’. On that record, the sometime collaborator with I See Hawks In L.A. put his own stamp on a well curated selection of cover tunes, often with mixed results. Great versions of Neil Young’s often overlooked ‘Albuquerque’ and Dylan’s ‘She Belongs To Me’ gave the album an easily approachable core, whilst a drastically reworked version of The Doors’ ‘Crystal Ship’ showed how Waller was unafraid of rebuilding material from the ground up. Even when the material that wasn’t quite as interesting, showed off a man with a rich voice. The album certainly could have done without the misjudged version of ‘Waterloo Sunset’, but the good often outweighed the bad.