The live albums I played in May 2018 are:
Art Rock
Blues Rock
Last month featured a variety of types and that’s what I’m expecting to repeat in April.
Art Rock
Blues Rock
My binge on jazz ended slightly earlier in February than I expected and I’ve continued to spread myself around the different categories.
Art Rock
Blues
I’m still very interested in jazz at the moment but I really enjoyed listening to some of my must have albums in the other categories last month and that’s likely to happen again.
Blues
Hard Rock
Indie Rock
Jazz
Progressive Rock
Pub Rock
Punk & New Wave
Singer Songwriters
Southern Rock
2017 finished with an addiction to jazz where I was delving into classic studio albums as well as live recordings. I don’t know how long it will last but Jazz is all I’m interested in at the start of January.
The first album of the year always has special meaning to me and in 2018, that honour went to Thelonious Monk Live At The IT Club.
During the month, I strayed briefly away from jazz by playing some of my favourite live albums and I enjoyed the change of each immensely but none of them made me want to contemplate switching the main focus of my interest this month.
Blues
Blues Rock
It was clear from the start of the month that the hard rock phase I brought from October in November is over as I finished last month jumping from one genre to another, enjoying the albums but not feeling committed to hearing more.
Surprisingly, I found myself shooting into jazz, enjoying the first album and deciding to refresh myself on a few old favourites. I became extremely focused on Charles Mingus and dabbled extensively in his studio albums as well as the live recordings.
Art Rock
Blues
Blues Rock
Classic Rock
Jazz
Studio Albums Played
October finished with me deep into a hard rock phase so it will be interesting to see how long this continues into November. There are still plenty of excellent albums I haven’t played recently that will be fresh to hear.
The danger is that I go too heavy, recoil in horror and head back to more gentle sounds.
As it happens, it was the release of the new Bob Dylan live album, Trouble No More which showcases his religious period at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s. This sent me back to the singer songwriting category, both for more live albums from Bob Dylan and other artists.
The release of Jeff Lynne’s live album full of ELO hits sent me on a bit of an art rock phase but then Malcolm Young of AC/DC died, giving me cause to turn back to hard rock for a short while but I was restless, dipping in and out of different types of music.
The live albums I played in October 2017 are likely to remain centred around blues and blues rock but we’ll have to see what develops.
Last month it was Walter Becker of Steely Dan, in October it is Tom Petty whose untimely and sad death on October 2, has caused me to change my plans on what gets paid. I bought American Girl when it came out in 1977. He was someone who I always thought had a classic live album in him but I found Pack Up The Plantation unworthy. The four CD The Live Anthology is much better but it’s only with the release of the unofficial radio broadcasts that we can experience the thrill of listening to a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers concert.
What I didn’t expect was the move to hard rock. Inspired by hearing two Uriah Heep songs while I was watching old episodes of the TV detective series Life On Mars, I loved playing Live 1973, so much I bought a much more recent live album – Live In Kawasaki. It also took me towards Thin Lizzy, UFO, The Who etc.
I’m expecting another month where I maintain focus on the blues as well as looking at how closely some of the blues rock artists can be linked to the blues.
The death of Walter Becker of Steely Dan on September 3, 2017 sent me towards my Dan recordings which had the potential to lead me towards Traffic and Colosseum and deeper in progressive rock or into jazz or jazzy classic rock like Chicago or Sting’s first live album.
However it didn’t and instead I found my way to R&B, that combination of blues, jazz and rock & roll.
The live albums I played In September 2017 were:
The live albums I’ve played in August 2017 include:
Clicking on the album title takes you to the album page, clicking on the artist name takes you to the artist page.