DYNAMIC LIVE PERFORMANCE FROM THE LATE BLUESMAN Born in Toronto in 1966, the late Jeff Healey was raised in the city's west end. He was adopted as an infant and while just short of his first birthday he lost his sight to retinoblastoma, a rare form of cancer. His eyes had to be surgically removed, and he was given ocular prostheses. Healey began learning guitar when he was three, developing his unique style of playing the instrument flat on his lap. When he was 15, he formed the band Blue Direction, a four-piece which primarily played bar-band cover tunes and performed at various local clubs in Toronto, including the Colonial Tavern. Healey began hosting a jazz and blues show on radio station CIUT-FM where he became known for playing from his massive collection of vintage 78 rpm records. Shortly thereafter he was introduced to two musicians, bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen, with whom he formed The Jeff Healey Band. This trio made their first public appearance at the Birds Nest, located upstairs at Chicago's Diner on Queen Street West in Toronto. They received a write-up in Toronto's NOW magazine, and soon were playing almost nightly in local clubs, such as Grossman's Tavern and the famed blues club Albert's Hall - where Healey was discovered by fellow guitarists Stevie Ray Vaughan and Albert Collins. After signing to Arista Records in 1988, the group released the album See The Light, featuring the hit single Angel Eyes and the song Hideaway , which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. While the band was recording See The Light, they were also filming the Patrick Swayze movie Road House. Healey had numerous acting scenes in the film with Swayze, and his group was the house cover band for the bar featured in the picture. In 1990, the band won the Juno Award for Canadian Entertainers of the Year. The albums Hell To Pay and Feel This gave Healey 10 charting singles in Canada between 1990 and 1994, including a cover of The Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps which featured George Harrison and Jeff Lynne on backing vocals and acoustic guitar. The performance featured on this CD comes from a radio broadcast recording made at the Paradise Rock Club, Boston, in April 1989, while on the See The Light promotional tour. Featuring a truly dynamic show, the trio hold nothing back as they perform songs from their debut and further covers, including a quite superb version of Bob Dylan s All Along The Watchtower . Jeff Healey continued to record and perform for a further two decades but, sadly, in 2008 he was struck down by another form of cancer and passed away in March of that year.
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