Music Review: Gene Clark/Carla Olson - In Concert

Roots rock fans should bow down and give thanks to Collector's Choice for this recent release. Not only will fans of the genre be absolutely thrilled with some previous unreleased live work from former Byrd Gene Clark, but having ex-Textone Carla Olson along for the ride is a double treat.

Not only is Olson a great singer/songwriter in her own right, but her work with Clark in the '80's was Clark's most fruitful partnership since he left the Byrds. Clark seemed to shine whenever Olsen was nearby and both artists always brought their A-games whenever they decided to work together.

Thanks to these newly discovered live recordings, we can once again marvel at Clark's gifts and the fabulous interplay he had with Olson. Though Clark always faired better as a team player than he did on his own (as his history tends to bear out), he was a marvelous artist and one of rock's best songwriters.

If nothing else, his brief sojourns with The Byrds prove this to be true.

While he was only with the band for two brief stretches, Gene Clark will always be best known for being a part of the earliest incarnation of the Byrds (1964-1966) for which he wrote and sang lead on some of the band's best known songs ("Eight Miles High," "Feel A Whole Better," and "Here Without You.").

But before his stint with the Byrds, he was a part of folk-pop group The New Christy Minstrels, who scored a few hits on the pop charts in the early '60's. Thankfully for fans of country-rock, he eventually became tired of the Minstrels constant touring and quit the band. He met Jim McGuinn (who later changed his name to Roger) and together they formed the Byrds, becoming forerunners of the influential country-rock sound which would eventually influence artists like Linda Ronstadt and The Eagles, among many others.

As previously mentioned, Clark's time in the Byrds was brief with contributing factors such as a fear of flying and growing resentment from the others for his dominant songwriting skills leading to his exit. Clark was immediately signed by Columbia as a solo act, but his debut solo album did very little business, due to his teaming with the Gosdin Brothers for an interesting record. Seems the world wasn't ready for a total rock/country hybrid at that point in time, though the album was brilliant in execution.

Article Author: Music Nerd

Scott Homewood is a music journalist who has been published in many magazines, websites and newspapers over his fifteen-plus year career as a writer and critic and loves great music no matter what the genre.

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