John Renbourn Group "Live in America" (1981)

This is a brilliant exploration of the group's take on English folk music.  The vocals of Jacqui McShee make this practically a Pentangle album.  And the use of percussion shows the connection between the music of England and North Africa. 

The Cramps "Psychedelic Jungle/Gravest Hits" (1981/1979)

This is a CD reissue of The Cramps' second full length, with their debut EP tacked onto the end.  Hence the 2 dates. 

Psychedelic Jungle suffers a bit from muddy production, as so many 80s releases are prone to do.  Ultimately, it's just not their strongest collection of material.  The performances are rather subdued (by their standards).  I'd suggest skipping it.

The Gun Club "Fire of Love" (1981)

More than 30 years later, "Fire of Love" is still a lava hot smoking platter of rock & roll madness.  Back in '81, the connection between punk & blues had not been clearly drawn.  The Brits had ignored the connection (probably because it was too closely associated with the Clapton/Green/Page/et al guitar gods they wanted to dethrone).  Americans were focusing more on 60s Nuggets acts. 

Coming out of the LA scene, Jeffrey Lee Pierce reconnects to the primal force of the blues, energized by the punk bands of his time.

It's interesting to hear how much this sounds like the Dream Syndicate in hindsight.  There's more of an instrumental emphasis than you might expect from the scene.  But unlike, say Television, this isn't NY avant instrumental prowess, but that clearly evolved from the rock scene.