Podunkian Music Club, March 8, 2008

Jeff Healey—Angel Eyes




Canadian Music Week is winding down, and for many it was most likely a week of mixed emotions.

Earlier in the week, Jeff Healey, the remarkable blues, jazz and rock musician passed away far too early. His life cut short by the re-occurrence of cancer.

Healey launched onto the music charts in the late eighties, his mixture of blues and rock making him a staple of music play lists and the Canadian concert scene. He is perhaps best known for the ballad Angel Eyes, which would go on to become one of his most successful recordings and the steady diet for many a wedding dance for years to come.

Healey, who was blind from the age of eight months, overcame that particular mountain in his life early on, learning to play the guitar by the age of three and forming his own band at seventeen that played numerous gigs in the Toronto area.

He was a Juno award winner in the eighties, appeared in Roadhouse with Patrick Swayze and found much success in the recording studio during that prolific period of his career.

However, the blues and jazz were his true loves in music and that is where his sound gravitated as he left behind the fad driven rock era and settled in for the long term as a musician of some renown, known for his thoughtful interpretations of the blues and jazz.

In addition to his performance times, Healey also would host programs on both CBC radio and the Toronto area station Jazz FM 01.

He was recently back in the studio and had put the finishing touches on the first rock oriented album in eight years, called Mess of Blues, which will be released in late March or early April.

It was a short career but one that is marked by some fond memories for his fans and a healthy library of the music he produced on his own terms and in his own style.

Artist—Jeff Healey
Recording—See the Light