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Live Blues Discs


walker

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I've just been listening to some live blues discs that I'm lovin':

Albert Collins and the Icebreakers - LIVE '92-'93

Son Seals - LIVE AND BURNING

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - LIVE AT MONTREUX 1982&1985

Anyone have any favs or recommendations?

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I read that they're rereleasing that live Muddy Waters disc from the 70's. Remastered and with some additional tunes. I love the original.

I hadn't heard that. Great news! That 70s live Muddy album was the first blues album I ever bought. Contains my favorite version of "Mannish Boy."

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Very little of this is "live," but I can't praise this three-disc set highly enough.

This is MUST HAVE!

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Junior Wells, Otis Spann, Jimmy Cotton, Otis Rush, Homesick James, and more AT THEIR PEAK. Originally released as CHICAGO/THE BLUES/TODAY these records had a HUGE influence on the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppellin and countless others...

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Didn't realize how many there are until I started looking through my collection. Here are some more:

Magic Sam Live (Delmark)

Magic Sam: Rockin' Wild in Chicago (Delmark)

Otis Rush: So Many Roads - Live in Concert (Delmark)

Slim Harpo & His king Bees: Sting It Then! (Ace)

Earl Hooker: The Moon Is Rising (Arhoolie) - four live cuts.

Earl Hooker: Play Your Guitar Mr. Hooker! (Black Top) - two live cuts.

Sonny Boy Williamson: King Biscuit Time (Arhoolie) - includes four tunes from a KFFA "King Biscuit Show" radio program

B.B. King: Blues Is King (MCA) - I like this better than Live at the Regal.

Various Artists: And This Is Maxwell Street (Rooster)

Various Artists: The Blues ... A Real Summit Meeting - (Originally on Buddah; reissued a number of times since then.)

Mississippi John Hurt: The Best of (Vanguard)

Skip James: Complete Bloomington, Indiana Concert Pts. 1&2 (Document)

Son House: Live at Gaslight Cafe, N.Y.C. (Document)

Various Artists: Blues at Newport; Great Bluesmen at Newport; Blues with a Feeling - (All Vanguard) - Live recordings from the Newport Folk Festival.

Various Artists: American Folk Blues Festival '63; '64; '66; '67; '69 (Currently available on Evidence, I believe.)

Lowell Fulson: The Blues Show! Live at Pit Inn (P Vine)

Eddie Taylor: Live in Japan, 1977 (P Vine)

John Littlejohn and Carey Bell: The Blues Show! Live at Pit Inn (P Vine)

Robert Lockwood Jr. and the Aces: Blue Live in Japan (P Vine)

Lonnie Johnson: The Unsung Blues Legend - The Living Room Session (Blues Magnet)

Johnny Shines: Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop! (Rounder)

Clifton Chenier: Live at St. Mark's (Arhoolie)

Juke Boy Bonner: 1960-67 (Flyright) - six live cuts from the Jungle Lounge, Houston.

Jimmy Witherspoon: Rockin' with Spoon (Charly) - I have this on Charly. I'm sure it's been reissued a number of times.

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and the Muse Allstars: Live at Sandy's (Muse)

Various Artists: Detroit After Hours Vol. 1 (Trix) - Detroit piano players recorded by Pete Lowry. There never was a Volume 2.

Various Artists: The 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival (Sire)

Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy: Live Action! (Charly) - Again, reissued many times. I believe the the Sonny Boy Williamson cut included on this is actually a studio recording.

I've only included recordings I recommend. A few are out of print, but well worth looking for.

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Didn't realize how many there are until I started looking through my collection. Here are some more:

Magic Sam Live (Delmark)

Magic Sam: Rockin' Wild in Chicago (Delmark)

Otis Rush: So Many Roads - Live in Concert (Delmark)

Slim Harpo & His king Bees: Sting It Then! (Ace)

Earl Hooker: The Moon Is Rising (Arhoolie) - four live cuts.

Earl Hooker: Play Your Guitar Mr. Hooker! (Black Top) - two live cuts.

Sonny Boy Williamson: King Biscuit Time (Arhoolie) - includes four tunes from a KFFA "King Biscuit Show" radio program

B.B. King: Blues Is King (MCA) - I like this better than Live at the Regal.

Various Artists: And This Is Maxwell Street (Rooster)

Various Artists: The Blues ... A Real Summit Meeting - (Originally on Buddah; reissued a number of times since then.)

Mississippi John Hurt: The Best of (Vanguard)

Skip James: Complete Bloomington, Indiana Concert Pts. 1&2 (Document)

Son House: Live at Gaslight Cafe, N.Y.C. (Document)

Various Artists: Blues at Newport; Great Bluesmen at Newport; Blues with a Feeling - (All Vanguard) - Live recordings from the Newport Folk Festival.

Various Artists: American Folk Blues Festival '63; '64; '66; '67; '69 (Currently available on Evidence, I believe.)

Lowell Fulson: The Blues Show! Live at Pit Inn (P Vine)

Eddie Taylor: Live in Japan, 1977 (P Vine)

John Littlejohn and Carey Bell: The Blues Show! Live at Pit Inn (P Vine)

Robert Lockwood Jr. and the Aces: Blue Live in Japan (P Vine)

Lonnie Johnson: The Unsung Blues Legend - The Living Room Session (Blues Magnet)

Johnny Shines: Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop! (Rounder)

Clifton Chenier: Live at St. Mark's (Arhoolie)

Juke Boy Bonner: 1960-67 (Flyright) - six live cuts from the Jungle Lounge, Houston.

Jimmy Witherspoon: Rockin' with Spoon (Charly) - I have this on Charly. I'm sure it's been reissued a number of times.

Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson and the Muse Allstars: Live at Sandy's (Muse)

Various Artists: Detroit After Hours Vol. 1 (Trix) - Detroit piano players recorded by Pete Lowry. There never was a Volume 2.

Various Artists: The 1968 Memphis Country Blues Festival (Sire)

Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy Guy: Live Action! (Charly) - Again, reissued many times. I believe the the Sonny Boy Williamson cut included on this is actually a studio recording.

I've only included recordings I recommend. A few are out of print, but well worth looking for.

Wow, that's a great list, thanks. Let me ask you though, what's the sound like on the Magic Sam ROCKIN' WILD IN CHICAGO? I heard it's kind of rough. Is it listenable?

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  Let me ask you though, what's the sound like on the Magic Sam ROCKIN' WILD IN CHICAGO?  I heard it's kind of rough.  Is it listenable?

Rough but listenable is a good description the sound on Rockin' Wild in Chicago. If you have some Magic Sam studio recordings , you'll probably like this. If you don't have any studio stuff, I'd go for those first. West Side Soul is a great record and a good one to start with.

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Here are some of my favorite live blues discs:

Albert King--The Blues at Sunrise (great live set at Montreux capturing Albert's guitar at its most powerful)

Freddie King--the beat 1966 (DVD) (amazing appearances on Dallas TV show; also some later live recordings)

Freddie King--Rockin the Blues Live (Crosscut LP; perhaps never reissued on CD, but the best live concert recording I've heard of Freddie)

Junior Wells and Buddy Guy (Bourbon CD: Japanese, maybe not easy to get but the best live Buddy Guy and Junior Wells release I've heard)

Buddy Guy--Live at the Checkerboard Lounge (JSP CD; not a great night but a pretty good one).

Buddy Guy--the Real Deal (backup band is mostly mediocre, but well recorded and Buddy sounds pretty intense, mostly playing his Chess recordings).

Otis Rush--So Many Roads (the most intense live recordings I've heard of Otis Rush in excellent form).

Since I have been so fortunate as to see all of the foregoing artists live, I might mention a few other blues artists I've seen play brilliantly, though I'm unaware of other live recordings: Fenton Robinson (not sure any of his recordings really captures him, but he sure was fantastic), Melvin Taylor (get any of his Evidence recordings over the last several years), Guitar Shorty (pretty unheralded, but one of the best, still), and Lucky Peterson (hasn't made a complete recording, but a great live blues artist).

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