Jeff Healey Band – Live Montreux 1999 (2005)

2009-10-11T19:12:13Z

Jeff Healey Band – Live Montreux 1999 (2005)


1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
2. My Little Girl
3. Stop Breakin’ Down
4. Third Degree
5. I Think I Love You Too Much
6. That’s What They Say
7. I Can’t Get My Hands On You
8. Yer Blues
9. Angel Eyes
10. Roadhouse Blues
11. See The Light
12. Hoochie Coochie Man

Bass – Joe Rockman
Drums – Tom Stephen
Guitar – Pat Rush, Philip Sayce
Guitar, Vocals – Jeff Healey

Canada's Jeff Healey burst on the scene in the late '80s with a pair of John Hiatt songs, "Angel Eyes" and "Confidence Man," drawing a good deal of attention for his unique laptop electric guitar style. A turn in the Patrick Swayze movie Roadhouse playing a down-and-dirty version of the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" also boosted Healey's profile, but although the blind guitarist is obviously a special and gifted player, his style and approach haven't changed one bit since, which is a good thing if you love what he does, but it makes most of his releases after the impressive debut album, See the Light, seem a bit like reruns. This live set recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1999 (two tracks, a cover of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and the Healey original "That's What They Say," are from a Montreux appearance two years earlier in 1997) likewise features few surprises, although Healey has added a second guitarist (Philip Sayce for the two 1997 cuts and Pat Rush for the 1999 set) to his longtime rhythm section of Joe Rockman on bass and Tom Stephen on drums. Healey's leads on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" amp the song up in all the right places, and he brings out the inherent heaviness in another Beatles tune, John Lennon's "Yer Blues." He breaks a string in the middle of "Roadhouse Blues," which is a bit like watching a NASCAR driver throw a wheel -- you don't want to see it happen, but it definitely makes things interesting. A chugging version of Robert Johnson's "Stop Breakin' Down" is a clear highlight. In the end, Healey and his band turn out solid, professional blues-rock, the kind of thing you'd expect from a top-notch bar band, and Healey is undeniably exciting as a lead player, but it all seems a bit caught up in a 1980s time warp. It would be nice to hear Healey expand his core sound a little with some soul or funk, say, or maybe go in the other direction and cover the Charley Patton songbook -- anything to add some freshness. ---Steve Leggett, AllMusic Review

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Jeff Healey Band – The Very Best Of (1998)

2009-10-11T19:15:09Z

Jeff Healey Band – The Very Best Of (1998)


1. It Could All Get Blown Away 
2. Communication Breakdown 
3. Yer Blues 
4. Stop Breakin' Down
5. Run Through The Jungle 
6. Cruel Little Number
7. Shapes Of Things 
8. Badge 
9. Confidence 
10. Angel
11. House That Love Built 
12. River Of No Return 
13. See The Light.
14. Don't Let Your Chance Go By 
15. Nice Problem To Have 
16. While My Guitar Gently Weep

What made Jeff Healey different from other blues-rockers was also what kept some listeners from accepting him as anything other than a novelty: the fact that the blind guitarist played his Fender Stratocaster on his lap, not standing up. With the guitar in his lap, Healey could make unique bends and hammer-ons, making his licks different and more elastic than most of the competition. Unfortunately, his material leaned toward standard AOR blues-rock, which rarely let him cut loose, but when he did, his instrumental prowess could be shocking.

Healey lost his sight at the age of one, after developing eye cancer. He began playing guitar when he was three years old and began performing with his band Blues Direction at the age of 17. Healey formed the Jeff Healey Band in 1985, featuring bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen. This trio released one single on its own Forte record label, which led to a contract with Arista. The Jeff Healey Band released their debut album, See the Light, in 1988 and the guitarist immediately developed a devoted following in blues-rock circles. Featuring the hit single "Angel Eyes," the record went platinum in the U.S., and while the Jeff Healey Band's subsequent records were popular, none were as successful as the debut.

As the 21st century dawned, Healey began to change his direction. He taught himself to play the trumpet and began to lean toward the kind of traditional 1920s and '30s jazz that had always fascinated him. He released two classic jazz albums, 2002's Among Friends and 2004's Adventures in Jazzland, on his own HealeyOphonic label, and a third traditional jazz outing, It's Tight Like That, which appeared on Stony Plain in 2006. And while he continued to do shows in his earlier blues-rock style, he increasingly gigged with his jazz combo, the Jazz Wizards. In 2008, a month before the release of his last studio-recorded blues album, Mess of Blues, Healey died from cancer. Songs from the Road, a collection of live blues-rock performances from 2006 and 2007, was released by the Ruf imprint in 2009, nearly 18 months after Healey's death. His final studio jazz album, Last Call, was issued by Stony Plain in April 2010. Other archival releases continued to find their way out of the vaults, including Heal My Soul, a record of unheard studio recordings released on what would've been Healey's 50th birthday on March 25, 2016. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, allmusic.com

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Jeff Healey Band – Live Montreux 1999 (2005)

Jeff Healey Band – The Very Best Of (1998)