Several live recordings often on the player lately:
Dervish, “Live in Palma” – probably needs no introduction here.
Richard Thompson, “Live on Austin City Limits.” RT in fine form, with an enthusiastic crowd, and a nice variety of material. I particularly like the opener, “Cooksferry Queen,” the fine, jazzy treatment of “Al Bowlly’s In Heaven,” “Shoot Out the Lights.” The set is so strong that “Vincent Black Lightning,” his contribution to the ballad tradition, doesn’t steal the show, good as it is.
Lucinda Williams, “Live at the Fillmore.” The combination of her voice and her guitar-driven desperation might be an either-you-like-it-or-you-don’t proposition, but this is one intense album. I thought I’d miss the inclusion of more material from “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” but this is almost more a band recording than a singer-songwriter show. And the “Live at the Fillmore” title has as much to do with the inventive freedom of the playing as it does with the location–doesn’t sound like, say, Quicksilver (well, almost, once in a while) but the spirit seems similar.
Bob Dylan, various stuff from the Bootleg Series recordings (Philharmonic Hall, Rolling Thunder, studio run-throughs for the “Highway 61” session), which make clear how much he’s at his best in a live situation, reinventing his songs and himself, backed by whatever ragged but right ensemble or just on his own.