Olson Says New Album Is Labor of Love, Tenacity

They seemed to know everything about Carla Olson’s career back in Japan, from her first recordings with the Textones in 1978 to her more recent work singing and playing alongside the late Byrds songwriter Gene Clark and ex-Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor.

Much of this music had been overlooked in the United States by mainstream radio and record labels, who at various times saw her rock ‘n’ roll as too country, too folk, too blues, too smart, too loud. Then she found herself on her first club tour of Japan, playing for politely fanatical audiences and being the subject of a two-hour radio interview show.

“I had no idea what they were saying,” she says now, a few weeks after returning to her Studio City apartment. “But the guy had everything I had ever recorded. It was really amazing.”

Olson was brought to Japan at the urging of the president of a Rolling Stones fan club in Tokyo, but not just for her work with Taylor. The dynamic brand of rock epitomized by the Stones and other ‘60s veterans has long been Olson’s core influence, as it is on her first American solo album, “Within an Ace,” just released on Watermelon Records.

Olson’s musical aspirations are little changed from when she arrived in Los Angeles from Austin, Tex., 14 years ago with her friend, Kathy Valentine, later of the Go-Go’s. “The first year Kathy and I lived here it was grim,” says Olson, dressed casually in jeans and a dark vest. “It was homemade bean burritos four or five times a week. We had one car between us that ran. We didn’t know anybody.

“L. A.’s a tough place. But if you’re not here you don’t feel the immediacy that you need, the urgency with which to push on. I know that if I’d moved back to Austin I would sit there enjoying good Mexican food and resting on my butt--really not doing anything.”

The singer-guitarist has since watched as a handful of styles passed through the local club circuit, some to success, others to oblivion. But, if anything, Olson’s music has moved deeper into a heavier rock-blues groove, leading a band powered largely by three electric guitars. Her current lineup includes guitarists George Callins and Todd Wolfe, bassist Jesse Sublett and drummer Rick Hemmert.

“I like playing loud,” Olson says. “There is something really exhilarating about playing loud that doesn’t happen at acoustic shows.”

The new album was designed as a full-length collaboration with Taylor, a kind of follow-up to their 1991 live album, “Too Hot for Snakes.” Columbia Records funded the recording of seven tracks for the studio album, but ultimately passed on the project. Taylor left on a solo tour, leaving Olson with an unfinished record.

Rather than let those recordings be wasted, Olson gathered her band and a collection of guest players, including former Faces and Stones keyboardist Ian McLagan, to finish the album’s 10 songs. “This album was definitely a labor of love and tenacity,” she says.

Olson says “Within an Ace” is probably the best album she’s worked on. She had recorded another solo record in Europe about three years ago for a Scandinavian label, but was unable to find a company to release it in the United States.

There’s still some disappointment in not being able to finish the new project with the former Stones guitarist, who was part of one of that band’s most creative periods. Before leaving the Stones in 1974, Taylor played on “Let It Bleed,” “Sticky Fingers” and “Exile on Main Street.”

Since then, however, his creative output has been minimal, Olson maintains with some regret. “I’m really annoyed at Mick because I think he needs to do another body of work that’s as good as the first album he did after the Stones. He just doesn’t do enough.”

Taylor has relocated to Florida after three years in Los Angeles.

“I just have to take it for what it was,” Olson says. “It was the highlight of my career, playing with him, whether on stage or in the studio. You’re standing there playing with this person and you really want to be in the audience because you really want to watch him play.”