Jeff Healey Band

Norman Jeffrey "Jeff" Healey was a blind Canadian jazz and blues-rock vocalist and guitarist who attained musical and personal popularity, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s. He reached the Top 10 in Canada with the songs "I Think I Love You Too Much" and "How Long Can a Man Be Strong." Hell to Pay is the second album by The Jeff Healey Band. It was released in 1990, and was one of the top albums in Canada. In 1991 it was nominated for an "Album of the Year" Juno. Guest musicians on the album include George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Bobby Whitlock and Mark Knopfler. The album was recorded at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec, Canada in January and February 1990.

Third time up for sightless guitar wunderkid Jeff Healey and gang; Feel This offers the power trio's meatiest and most satisfying outing. JHB's brand of roadhouse rock can be somewhat bland on disc; here the group captures much more of its trademark live intensity than in the past. The unobtrusive addition of keyboards adds a more expansive dimension to several tracks. Boogie fans will want to check out the ZZ Top-like "Cruel Little Number"; blues-rockers will come away satisfied with the likes of "House That Love Built." Hip-hop connoisseurs, on the other hand, will likely want to avoid JHB's rap spoof on "If You Can't Feel Anything Else."

Jeff Healey's debut album See the Light may be similar to Stevie Ray Vaughan's high-octane blues-rock, but in blues and blues-rock, it's often the little things that count, such as guitar styles, and there's no denying that Healey has a distinctive style. Healey plays his Stratocaster flat on his lap, allowing him to perform unusual long stretches that give his otherwise fairly predictable music real heart and unpredictability. Throughout the album, his guitar work keeps things interesting, even on slow ballads like "Angel Eyes" (one of two John Hiatt songs, by the way, along with the ripping "Confidence Man"). That's what keeps See the Light interesting, and it's what makes it an intriguing, promising debut. Unfortunately, Healey has never quite fulfilled that promise, but it's still exciting to hear the first flowerings of his talent.

Capturing a homecoming gig for the conquering hero, Live at Grossman's 1994 finds blues-rocker Jeff Healey returning to a favorite club. Looking back, it’s easy to see that Healey was between stages: his most popular albums were just behind him and the years of him carving out a niche as a working bluesman who dabbled in jazz were ahead of him. Here, he was performing with the velocity and volume of a blues-rocker at his peak, invigorated by an intimate setting where he could just play, not worrying about throwing in “Angel Eyes” or “I Think I Love You Too Much.” The result is a set where he salutes his idols – Clapton, Elmore James, Albert King, Howlin’ Wolf, Hendrix, even the Beatles via an excellent “Yer Blues” – and it’s one of his purest and best records as a straight-ahead blues-rocker.

Over ten years into his recording career, singer/guitarist Jeff Healey continues to churn out rockin' blues – especially on his 2000 release, Get Me Some. Not a lot has changed over the years – Healey still specializes in a melodic form of blues-rock that would sound perfect on mainstream rock radio – or in the follow-up to Roadhouse (if Patrick Swayze decided to revisit his ass-kicking Dalton character). The classic Jeff Healey sound/approach can be heard throughout – especially on such up-tempo ditties as the album-opening "Which One" and "My Life Story," while also taking it down a notch on the Allman Brothers-esque "Macon Georgia Blue" and the guitar/vocal album-closer, "Rachel's Song." Get Me Some is exactly what you'd expect to hear from a new Healey studio album.

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.

On May 22, Eagle Rock Entertainment will celebrate the genius of guitarist/blues-rock vocalist Jeff Healey, with the release of a two-disc deluxe edition of "Heal My Soul". For the first time, this critically acclaimed masterpiece will be packaged with its companion album "Holding On". This will also be released on digital formats.

See The Light is the first album from the Jeff Healey Band. Selling a million copies, the album rocketed the Band into the spotlight and kicked off over a decade of intense touring and recording all over the world. “The three years following the release of See The Light were a whirlwind… Almost non-stop touring, talk shows, press and radio interviews with a three-month break only to write and record a new album [Hell To Pay]. I was meeting and touring with ZZ Top, Little Feat, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan, Bonnie Raitt and many others.”

Jeff Healey was an astounding and varied talent as a singer, guitarist, and, later in his career, as a trumpet player, and it's difficult to imagine an artist quite like him. Blind from eye cancer since the age of one, he drew attention as a maverick guitar player (he played his Stratocaster on his lap, which allowed him to attack and bend the strings in a totally unique style; at his best, he roared and soared as well as anybody ever has on the instrument). This four-disc set (three CDs and a DVD) features Healey and his crackerjack band live in three separate concerts, and it makes clear what a powerful and empowering performer he was on-stage. The first disc catches the Jeff Healey Band blazing through an 11-song set at the 1989 Montreal Jazz Festival, with the second disc capturing a set from the St. Gallen Open Air Festival in Switzerland from 1991 (the performance was filmed and makes up the DVD included here), and the third disc presents a 1995 stage set from the Hard Rock in Toronto.