Jeff Healey Band - The Very Best Of Jeff Healey Band
Album Tracks:
01 It could All Get Blown Away
02 Communication Breakdown
03 Yer Blues
04 Stop Breakin’ Down
05 Run Through The Jungle
06 Cruel Little Number
07 Shapes Of Things
08 Badge
09 Confidence Man
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 Weeps
Biography:
What makes Jeff Healey different from other blues-rockers is also what keeps some listeners from accepting him as anything other than a novelty -- the fact that the blind guitarist plays his Fender Stratocaster on his lap, not standing up. With the guitar in his lap, Healey can make unique bends and hammer-ons, making his licks different and more elastic than most of the competition. Unfortunately, his material leans toward standard AOR blues-rock, which rarely lets him cut loose, but when he does, his instrumental prowess can 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 Trio in 1985, adding bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen. The trio released one single on their own Forte record label, which led to a contract with Arista Records. The Jeff Healey Trio 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. While the Jeff Healey Trio`s subsequent records have been popular, none have been 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 to 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 while he continued to do some shows in his old blues-rock style, he increasingly gigged with his jazz combo, the Jazz Wizards. His first album of jazz to see wide release was It`s Tight Like That, which appeared on Stony Plain in 2006. Healey continued in the traditional jazz idiom for both Among Friends and Adventures in Jazzland, released in 2007 on HealeyOphonic. In 2008, a month before the release of his last studio album Mess of Blues, Healey died from cancer.
