As reported by William Ruhlmann of AllMusic, the album was released without Mason's approval.

That previous album, Headkeeper, had been intended to be a double album, with one disk composed of live recordings made at the Troubador and the other of studio recordings.

But after Mason ceased work and took possession of some of the studio masters, Blue Thumb released Headkeeper as a single album, one side live and one side studio recordings.

As the dispute with Mason continued, Blue Thumb issued Dave Mason Is Alive, composed entirely of recordings from the same live performance that had been used for Headkeeper.

Of the seven tracks on Alive, two of them, "Feelin' Alright" and "Just a Song", are repeated from Headkeeper.