B.B. King, Leon Russell, the late Ted Hawkins and a free-form jam session from David Grisman, Tony Rice and Jerry Garcia top the list of releases in a week dominated by the blues.

(Click here for a select list of this week's releases.)

King, who seems to be the unofficial world ambassador for the blues these days, isn't resting on his laurels after 50 years of working the road. The several-times-over papa and multiple-Grammy winner's new album, Makin' Love Is Good for You, features his regular touring band and five new songs.

The Pizza Tapes is another release from Grisman's vaults. Good thing the mando man likes to keep those tapes rolling. This one captures a two-night jam session that occurred when he introduced Grateful Dead leader Garcia, a former jug-band player and longtime bluegrass lover, to guitarist Rice, renowned in jazz and bluegrass circles for the speed and sophistication of his fretwork.

It was the only time Garcia and Rice played together. Bootleg copies have been in circulation for years — supposedly thanks to a pizza-delivery guy who swiped the tapes from Garcia's kitchen.

Hawkins was just starting to reap acclaim for his unique brand of blues when he died following a stroke in 1995. It was an abrupt end to a colorful life — Hawkins had done time in prison, lived as a hobo and slept on the streets before finding acclaim for his hard-luck blues.

The Kershaw Sessions, previously released on Strange Roots, is composed of a series of performances he gave on Andy Kershaw's BBC radio show from 1986–1989. The 19-track collection includes covers of songs by country songwriters including Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and Dallas Frazier, as well as Brook Benton's "I Got What I Wanted."

Live at Gilley's captures the infamously idiosyncratic Russell delivering his trademark brand of righteous roadhouse blues at Gilley's, the enormous club bearing Mickey Gilley's name in Pasadena, Texas. It was your basic honky-tonk with a 24-track recording studio on site, plunked down smack-dab in the middle of suburbia at the height of the Urban Cowboy craze. It burned down in 1989, but tapes of various shows there escaped the flames and are being released on compilations by QVC-affiliated Q Records.