Heal My Soul

Billed as a "companion" to the 2016 posthumous collection Heal My Soul, Holding On combines a full live concert from 1999 with five additional studio outtakes. According to Roger Costa, the compilation's producer, these five songs were left off of Heal My Soul "primarily because they didn't quite fit into the flow" and "they were too good not to share." They had been shared once before, on a limited-edition vinyl called Heal My Soul: Bonus Sessions, but the digital release is welcome because they're solid songs, highlighted by the charging "Love Takes Time," the hooky "Every Other Guy," and "All That I Believe," which feels a bit like a conscious re-write of Hootie & the Blowfish. All are nice additions to the Healey catalog and the concert is solid, too – perhaps a little too pristine and polished, but still worthy for Healey heads.

Released on what would've been Jeff Healey's 50th birthday, Heal My Soul is the first collection of unheard original Healey material released in 15 years. These recordings were left incomplete at the time of Healey's death, so it was up to his estate to complete the tapes, and the efforts are relatively seamless: it all sounds like it dates from somewhere in the early 2000s, a period arriving after his hits but before he started exploring hot jazz. In other words, it's guitar-heavy blues-rock, where the songs are sometimes nicely constructed ("Baby Blue," "I Misunderstood") but sometimes feel like vehicles for tasty licks. Because Healey isn't around to spin out more of these tasty licks, there's value to this – his solos and riffs are vibrant, elastic, and alive – but the record is best understood as a testament to his talent assembled by family for his fans to cherish.

South African expatriate Jonathan Butler isn't really a jazz artist, but his laid-back, slightly jazz-tinged approach to R&B/pop has earned the singer/guitarist/songwriter/producer a lot of supporters in the urban contemporary, adult contemporary, quiet storm, and smooth jazz/NAC markets. Butler has enjoyed a following since the late '70s, although he reached his commercial peak in the late '80s, and he continues to tour and record in the 21st century. Born in Cape Town, South Africa in October 1961, Butler was only a child when he started singing and playing acoustic guitar. Butler, who was the youngest of about 12 children, absorbed a variety of music when he was a kid. He was an admirer of South African stars like singer Miriam Makeba, but he was also hip to the American soul and jazz artists who lived thousands of miles away in the United States.