I’ve tried to distinguish between blues and blues rock.
Wikipedia defines blues as:
“Blues is a genre and musical form that originated in African-American communities in the ‘Deep South’ of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre is a fusion of traditional African music and European folk music spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.
The blues form, ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common.”
In contrast, blues rock as it developed in the 1960s and 1970s emphasises instrumental improvisations and a stronger beat but inevitably there is a crossover between the two genres.
To help understand the development, I’ve a post on the history of the blues through the birth, deaths and careers of the major blues artists.
Luther Allison Where Have You Been Live in Montreux 1976-1994
Luther Allison Live ’89 Let’s Try It Again
Lonnie Brooks Live From Chicago Bayou Lightning Strikes 1988
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown Real Life 1985
Albert Collins Live At Rockpalast 1980
Albert Collins Frozen Alive 1981
Albert Collins Live in Japan 1982
Robert Cray Live At The BBC 1988 1991
Snooks Eaglin Live in Concert 1985
Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan In Session 1983
Little Milton Live at Westville Prison 1983
Muddy Waters & The Rolling Stones Live at the Checkerboard Lounge Chicago 1981
Otis Rush TOPS 1985
Otis Rush & Friends Live at Montreux 1986
Taj Mahal Live at Ronnie Scott’s 1988
You can get these albums from Amazon.com – Amazon.co.uk
I don’t have a readers poll to find the vest blues live albums of the decade but I do have an all-time poll which will help to guide you.
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Blues Live Albums By Decade – 1960s – 1970s – 1980s – 1990s – 2000s – 2010s
Blues Rock By Decade – 1960s – 1970s – 1980s – 1990s – 2000s – 2010s
Other Helpful Webpages About Live Blues Albums In The 1980s
Big Beat Music Blues Of The ’80s
https://www.bluebeat.com/playlist/info/14082/Blues-Of-The-80s
Real Life is a live album by Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown.
It was recorded at Caravan Of Dreams in Fort Worth, Texas during concerts held between September 4 and 7, 1985.
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Where Have You Been Live in Montreux 1976-1994 is a live album by Luther Allison.
It has been compiled from his appearances at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland with the majority of tracks coming from 1976 and 1984.
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Live in Japan is a live album by Albert Collins and the Icebreakers.
It was recorded in Tokyo on December 21, 1982.
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Robert Cray Live At The BBC is a collection of live recordings made by the BBC.
The songs were recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon, London in 1988 and 1991.
Frozen Alive is a live recording of an Albert Collins gig from 1981.
According to Wikipedia he was quite a character live:
“…he would frequently come down from the stage, attached to his amplifier with a very long cord, and mingle with the audience whilst still playing.He was known to leave clubs while still playing, and continue to play outside on the sidewalk, even boarding a city bus in Chicago while playing, outside of a club called Biddy Mulligan’s (the bus driver stayed at the bus stop until Collins got off).
He sounds quite a character.
If you like your blues live, you should hear it.
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