JEFF Healey [1966 to 2008]...His best cover song album , ever!

On , Saturday , May 5th , 2008...CREAM's bass player and vocalist , JACK BRUCE...DEEP PURPLE's , IAN GILLAN...and the...GUESS WHO / B.T.O. , legend , RANDY BACHMAN...all gathered in , Toronto , Canada , for the start of 2 sold out tribute concerts to honour one man...

...JEFF HEALEY [1966 to 2008]...

Who was...JEFF HEALEY?

He was a Jazz radio host on the CBC. A mean Jazz Trumpet player. A Jazz record collector of over 25,000+ old American Jazz LPs. A blues / rock artist , a singer and a song writer. He was an actor in the movie called , ROAD HOUSE. He even owned his own road house bar in Toronto , Canada , that still bares his name.

On many Tuesday nights he could be seen at his own bar called , JEFF HEALEY'S ROADHOUSE , jamming with people from the audience who had brought their own instruments to his club.

Try doing that with...JIMMY PAGE?

I met him there once and he wrote me an autograph. YES , he could do that too.

He was also known as that BLIND Canadian guitar wizard that played the guitar on his lap like no one else did. He started playing his guitar at the age of 3 years old after he was blinded by cancer at the age of 1.

His first album was called...SEE THE LIGHT...and with it's hit...ANGEL EYES...it sold 5 million copies , world wide.

Many more studio , live albums and live DVDs of blues / rock / jazz , would follow.

Sadly...MESS OF BLUES...is his last album , ever. However , it is his BEST SOUNDING cover song album ever.

It is short and sweet with only 10 songs but his crack bar band can play some amazing keyboards , sings 2 of the songs and helps make...JEFF's...incredible / famous guitar playing sound even better. If that is even possible?

MESS OF BLUES...has 4 live songs and 6 songs recorded in the studio.

The sound recording is so clean and clear that it is like your are actually in the bars listening to his music played only the way...JEFF...could play it.

The opening 2 songs were recorded in , London.

1. I'M TORN DOWN ,
2. HOW BLUE CAN YOU GET , [what a blues guitar solo!!!].

The next 5 songs where recorded in the studio but they don't lose their live feel.

3. SUGAR SWEET
4. JAMBALAYA , [sung by , ALEC FRASER] ,
5. THE WEIGHT , [sung by the whole band] ,
6. MESS OF BLUES
7. IT'S ONLY MONEY [an ordinal song written and sung by the keyboard player , DAVE MURPHY].

JEFF...has always loved American music but it is nice to see that he pays tribute to the Canadian sound by performing 2 songs by his fellow Canadians. ROBBIE ROBERTSON's , THE WEIGHT...and...NEIL YOUNG's , LIKE A HURRICANE.

The next 2 songs where actually recorded at his own bar in , Toronto.

8. LIKE A HURRICANE
9. SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD

JEFF...finishes this classic album with the song , SHAKE , RATTLE AND ROLL , at song , # 10.

If you love older American / Canadian blues and rock and roll , played by a crack bar band from an album that sounds like you are there?

Then the album...MESS OF BLUES...is , " SUGAR SWEET NEVER TASTED , [sounded] , SO GOOD "

I would also highly recommend one of his live DVDs called...SEE THE LIGHT : LIVE FROM LONDON 1989.

THANK YOU , JEFF , for many fantastic years of excellent albums and your electric live shows!!!

JHB pure blues at it's best
Absolutely great blues. The best real blues JHB has done, a little rock overtones but pure blues. There best blues. Hey, what else can I say.

A Percect memory of Jeff Healey
It was so sad, when Jeff Heley died this year, but we were very lucky that this CD was finished, because this is one more great blues CD from Jeff Healey!
We will always remember him!

Thank you, Jeff!
Jeff Healey's first blues-rock release in eight years, "Mess Of Blues" is primarily made up of recent studio recordings, a couple recorded live at his Roadhouse club in Toronto, and a couple recorded live at the Islington Academy in London.

Though some like to think that great musicians are elevated to a status of eminent legend once they're deceased, that announcement would be redundant in Jeff Healey's case. He was already an authentic legend before the fact.

Back in 1988, when he released his debut album, See the Light, listeners knew immediately that they were hearing greatness for the first time. The fact that he rested his Fender Stratocaster on his lap like a lap-steel and played all of the chordal and fretboard formations in an approach all his own rendered him truly innovative and courageous to guitar players and music fans everywhere.

He became an authentic six-string hero instantly.

The fact that he was blinded before the age of one from a rare cancer, the sole significance in forcing him to develop such an atypical playing style, shed a light of reverence on his amazing talent. Though he went on to live a rewarding and fruitful existence - garnering respect and admiration from fellow musicians and fans worldwide - cancer once again surfaced, taking him at the age of 41 on March 2nd, 2008.

The shining light to the story is that his musical legacy will live on, and his memory will fill the minds and hearts of many for years to come.

Mess Of Blues is very much a part of that legacy.

The disc is a collection of classic blues songs and a few good old bluesy rockers, most of which were live favorites of Jeff Healey fans. The album opens with a rollicking rendition of "I'm Tore Down," with Jeff's scorching lead work adorning the whole song. The band then slows it down for an eight-minute version of "How Blue Can You Get." They display an ability to connect in this slow blues classic, and show that they're at home in authentic blues territory. The rhythm guitar playing of Dan Noordermeer and the keyboard work of Dave Murphy are prominent here. Healey drives it home in the latter part of the song with a sweet and terse lead solo, an attribute of a genuine bluesman.

They take the atmosphere out of the city clubs and move it down to bayou country for "Jumbalaya," with bassist Alec Fraser on the vocals. The classic Americana song segues nicely into the earthy "The Weight," a respectful cover that easily would appease The Band and writer Robbie Robertson.

"Mess O' Blues" comes across as the pivotal blues song on the album, as solid musicianship completes this concise, vibrant number. Jeff's licks flow fluidly alongside his spirited voice. Pianist Dave Murphy is all over his own composition, "It's Only Money," vocally and instrumentally. His electrifying piano phrasing, in the vein of Jerry Lee Lewis, lights the room on fire. Jeff cuts loose in the latter part of the song with a scorching lead solo.

An interesting rendition of Neil Young's "Like A Hurricane" transpires next, one of only a couple of tracks that stray from blues territory on the album. The band enters slow blues mode for "Sittin' On Top Of The World," which highlights the talents of both Healey and Murphy once again. The album is complete with a rollicking "Shake, Rattle, and Roll."

Mess Of Blues is an exciting collection from the Jeff Healey Band. In the liner notes Jeff wrote: "I am most grateful to Thomas Ruf for making it possible for me to record this CD, a straightforward, straight-ahead collection of performances by a band of which I'm very proud to be a part."

We all thank you, Jeff, for bestowing upon us a lot of great music over the years. Thanks for the memories.

Jeff Healey's Fiery Farewell
When Canadian blues-rock guitarist Jeff Healey lost his battle to cancer in early March at age 41, he was known mostly for his early successes, notably the multi-platinum disc `See the Light' from 1988 and his appearance in the film `Roadhouse'. In that film, the blind bluesman whose blazing licks were played with his guitar flat in his lap played the leader of a hard-core bar band. With `Mess of Blues', recorded in late 2007, he appears to have come back to his roots.
Healey had not released a blues or rock studio album since `Get Me Some' in 2000. A musicologist with an enormous collection of vintage jazz albums, he turned his attention for the past seven years to exclusively dixieland jazz and big band music, hosting a radio show as well as singing, playing trumpet, and guitar. Three CDs recorded during 2002-2006 feature his Django-influenced guitar lines, but most often showcase his workmanlike trumpet solos. These discs showed that Healey was an amazing talent, able to play just about any type of instrument and any style.
In the liner notes for `Mess of Blues', Healey explains the use of his tour and house band from his nightclub as the musicians on the CD, and four live songs, as an effort `to be the best bar band one could possibly ask for'. This is both the strength, and a limitation, of the music on the disc. The band starts strong with two live blues standards, "I'm Torn Down" and "How Blue Can You Get", then gets a little funky with a blues-drenched reading of "Sugar Sweet". On these three, Healey is in top form; no doubt aware of B.B. King's well-known cover of "How Blue", he walks a few bars in the master's shoes, giving the listener some stinging of B.B.'s vibrato and quicksilver licks before letting his fingers go.
The next cut, "Jambalaya", illustrates the one problem with the disc-questionable material selection on several songs. This classic is is sung by Healey's keyboardist Dave Murphy, and the bar band sounds just like that on this one. A brief, toned down solo fitting the zydeco-boogie feel of the tune gets steamrolled by an overplayed, distorted second solo by Healey. Next, The Band gets a tribute with a straight-ahead reading of "The Weight" that is uninspired and appears out of place on the disc of guitar-oriented music.
The material problem crops up again in the next two tunes, "Mess of Blues" and "It's Only Money". The first, a Brill Building B-side for Elvis in 1960 arranged a lot like the original, except for a couple of lines of hot guitar by Healey, is not likely to be familiar to most listeners. With "Money", the composer is keyboardist Murphy, who again sings. This is a derivative, straight-ahead rocker, with one of the most incendiary guitar solos on the disc. The remainder of the song sounds like Dan Baird of Georgia Satellites fame singing "Train Kept a Rolling", leaving one wishing that song (or another choice) had been included instead or this original.
The next two songs are back on firm footing. "Like a Hurricane' is an excellent live cover of fellow Canadian Neil Young's anthem, with Healey again working his guitar approach to mimic, to an extent, Young's electric primal scream and the arrangement carrying the feel of the original song. Also live, and probably the guitar highlight of the disc, is "Sitting on Top of the World". Healey's recent past playing jazz lines is evident on this chestnut, which starts with Murphy's keyboards (his playing is outstanding throughout the album), builds with some jazzy scales and accelerates to the classic, blazing style that gave Healey his reputation. The disc closes out with "Shake, Rattle, and Roll", done with rockabilly swagger and fluid solos by Healey.
Jeff Healey's final album has the feel of a well-rehearsed bar band doing a set, with an exceptional guitarist. That certainly was the stated goal, and it bears much similarity to his 1998 CD `Cover to Cover.' The few missteps do not detract from this being an overall success, a very good album, and a must for Healey fans. Listening to the brilliant guitar work on this album it is easy to forget, this guy was blind, and playing the guitar on his lap. Jeff Healey was an amazing guitarist and musical talent who will be greatly missed.