Pop Music Reviews : Olson in Stonesy Setting With Ex-Stone, Side Stone

Local rocker Carla Olson, erstwhile leader of the Textones, has traveled her share of musical courses but always seemed at her best in a hard-rocking, Stonesy setting. And what better way to showcase those tendencies than to finally hire on a couple of actual Rolling Stones?

Well, an ex-Stone and a side-Stone, to be precise--guitarist Mick Taylor and keyboard player Ian McLagan, respectively, both part of the crack new band Olson showed off in two shows Sunday at the Roxy that were recorded for a planned live album.

Imagine the Stones in their very bluesiest, early ‘70s mode, complete with plenty of cigarette smoke swirling up from around the guitar necks, but led by a really nice gal . To make the illusion complete, Olson did sing a few vintage numbers from the “Sticky Fingers” and “Goats Head Soup” era, and Taylor himself chimed in with a couple of lead vocals to go along with his slide work.

The bulk of the material, though, was Olson’s, either from the Textones’ “Midnight Mission” album of six years back or newer material from a recent solo album released only in Europe.

For Olson fans, these shows were clearly a relief after a considerably disappointing second Textones album three years ago and a subsequent duet album with Gene Clark that found her in a less appropriate folkie mold. Welcome back.

For Taylor fans, this was an all-too-rare chance to check out the legend of The Guy Who Quit the Stones and Even Jagger Doesn’t Know Why in a worthy context--at home in exile on the Sunset Strip, if you will.