If you use the CIDER debugger then this doesn't appear to be a big issue. Try step debugging the following function. I get an IFn related exception right as the call to (list name) is made.
(defn f [name list]
#dbg
(concat list (list name)))
(f 'alice '(bob))
Having variables that shadow functions, that are later used somewhere causes rather inscrutable jvm backtraces to appear in Clojure.