CD Review: Carla Olson & Mick Taylor "Too Hot For Snakes Plus" (Collectors' Choice)
redtun...@gmail.com
Choice)
L.A. roots-rocker Olson and British blues-rock guitarist Taylor made a
powerful pair. This live album, recorded at the Roxy in Los Angeles in
1990, was their debut, waxed with a hand-picked band that had
rehearsed for a week and played only one warm-up gig. It's a sign of
the players' quality that the group sounds like a well-oiled road
unit, with Olson's powerful, earthy vocals backed by a solid rhythm
section of Rick Hemmert on drums and Jesse Sublett on bass, and
sparked throughout by Taylor's brilliant electric guitar. Released in
1991 under this title in the U.S. and as "Live" in Europe, this two-CD
reissue adds a Taylor-sung cover of Fred McDowell's "You Gotta Move,"
previously released in Japan, and an entire second disc of studio
tracks picked from Olson's subsequent collaborations with Taylor.
Unlike Olson's earlier live outing with her band the Textones
(coincidentally released by Collectors' Choice as "Detroit '85 Live &
Unreleased"), the blues-rock essayed here hasn't aged a day.
Augmenting Olson and Taylor's originals with contemporary blues from
band members Jesse Sublett ("Who Put the Sting on the Honeybee") and
George Callins ("Trying to Hold On"), they also revisit a pair of
Jagger-Richards tunes ("Sway" and "Silver Train") from Taylor's tenure
with the Rolling Stones. Olson smartly stays away from a luminous
Jagger-like star-turn on these latter tunes, sinking instead into the
lyrics and the band, and giving Taylor room for his emotional, tour de
force playing, especially on "Sway."
Taylor's repeatedly shown himself to be one of the ultimate journeymen
guitarists. His stints with John Mayall and the Rolling Stones,
collaborations with Jack Bruce, Gong, and John Phillips, and guest
appearances with Mike Oldfield, Little Feat, Bob Dylan and others have
all been both reliable and memorable. More telling, his work as a
gunslinger has greatly overshadowed his solo output. His
collaborations with Olson are no exception, showing how fluidly he
could integrate his playing with others, and how well his original
compositions could be picked. He stepped to the microphone for "Broken
Hands," taken from his self-titled 1979 solo release, and reached back
to 1968 for his Mayall-recorded instrumental "Hartley Quits."
The collected studio sides again feature Olson and her bandmate's
songs together with a pair of Jagger-Richards compositions,
"Winter" (from Taylor's tenure with the Stones) and "Think I'm Goin'
Mad." Though the productions are more polished and the arrangements
more rehearsed, the playing couldn't get much tighter or empathetic
than the live unit had shown. There's more variety here, born of
recordings spanning ten years and different lineups, with good-sized
helpings of Olson's rockin' roots (crossing Chrissie Hynde's emotion
with Carlene Carter's country inflections) and Taylor's mesmerizing
guitar playing. The opening take of "Winter," for example, doubles the
length of the Stones' original, with Taylor laying down a superb five-
minute solo alongside the lyrical piano of Barry Goldberg.
The bulk of the studio tracks find Taylor integrating himself into the
band, offering up tasty annotations or short solos. The Olson original
"Great Black Hole" provides Taylor a chance to display his chops with
a slide. Overall, Olson's work with Taylor is sharper and bluesier
than her earlier work with the Textones; there's still a healthy dose
of the songwriter's social consciousness, but fleshed out with
Taylor's guitar playing and mostly stripped of the mid-80s sounds that
dated previous albums. Olson's fans likely know most of this work, and
though Taylor's fans may know the live album, they'll relish the
sampler of performances from Olson's studio albums. [(c)2008
redtunictroll at hotmail dot com]