Varese Sarabande
1987
So Rebellious A Lover
About This Album
So Rebellious a Lover caused quite a stir when it first appeared on the Demon label in 1987, and was hailed as a return to form for Clark. Carla Olson, the Austin native who transplanted to L.A. (and is criminally underappreciated in America), was the perfect foil for Clark. As a songwriter, her lean and taut lines resonate her visions of weary hearts and broken but hopeful lives. Her tunes are rooted in the Americana tradition of Townes Van Zandt, Clark, and others. Clark's tunes here are inspired and free of the weighty lyrical entanglements of some of his other '80s projects. These sessions were born from an informal living-room encounter, and that ease and freedom of license is everywhere evident. Proof in the pudding is in the recording of Clark's "Del Gato," which contains the lyric of the album's title. The story is an elegiac one, full of yearning and downtrodden vision, and the two singers' voices ache with desperation, regret, and the hint of redemption on the margins of the tune. Olson's "The Drifter" is a third-person tale of tragedy and legend. It is Old West mythology that, in the grain of the singer's entwined vocals, becomes a present-day passion play.
Track List (try tracks 2,4 and 6)

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