What is the best live blues album ever recorded?

A great blues album captures lightning in a bottle, but a great live blues recording captures something even rarer: the electricity between an artist and a crowd in the moment. Which live blues recording best does that?

Live at the Regal

B.B. King's 1965 recording at Chicago's Regal Theater is universally considered the greatest live blues album ever made, capturing his telepathic connection with a hometown crowd.

1/12

Live in Cook County Jail

B.B. King's 1971 performance at Cook County Jail is a raw, emotionally charged recording that stands as one of the most powerful blues documents ever captured.

2/12

Live Wire/Blues Power

Albert King's 1968 live recording at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco showcases his stinging left-handed guitar style and became his first album to chart nationally.

3/12

Muddy Waters at Newport 1960

Captured live at the Newport Jazz Festival, this album introduced raw Chicago electric blues to a massive new audience and remains a landmark of live blues documentation.

4/12

Live at the Checkerboard Lounge

Buddy Guy and Junior Wells' legendary 1979 performance at the Chicago blues club, joined by members of the Rolling Stones, is a sweaty, joyous celebration of Chicago blues.

5/12

Live at Café Au Go Go

John Lee Hooker's 1966 live album captures his hypnotic, one-chord boogie in an intimate Greenwich Village setting, with raw stomping energy that no studio could replicate.

6/12

Live at the El Mocambo

Stevie Ray Vaughan's incandescent 1983 Toronto performance, officially released in 1992, captures the young Texan at his most electrifying before fame changed everything.

7/12

Blues Night at Castle Farm

A landmark 1972 concert recording featuring some of the most important blues artists of the era in an extended, deeply soulful live performance setting.

8/12

Live in London

Sonny Boy Williamson's 1965 recording in London with the Yardbirds and Animals captured the thrilling encounter between the original Delta-Chicago blues master and his British disciples.

9/12

One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer

John Lee Hooker's various live recordings from the 1960s-70s showcase the hypnotic power of his solo guitar-and-stomp style in front of enraptured audiences.

10/12

Live at the Fillmore

B.B. King's 1973 Fillmore West recording captures him in the rock temple, playing with funky authority and proving his mastery to a new generation of music fans.

11/12

Howlin' Wolf Live in Europe

Recorded in 1964 during the American Folk Blues Festival European tour, this captures the terrifying power and showmanship of Howlin' Wolf at his explosive live peak.

12/12