Jeff Healey, musician and so much more~

This week’s blog is of necessity about overcoming physical challenges and being the best that you can be. To excel above all odds and in spite of the many obstacles thrown in our paths~

Jeff Healey did just that and more, this is an excerpt from an article I found in The New York Times shortly after he passed away. It is too short a mention and certainly does not tell the story of a dam fine musician, for that you’ll maybe want to do your own research. What I can say for sure is simply this, I appreciate Jeff and the impact his life and music has had on me. On 18th October, 2014 Jeff Healey will be inducted into the “Walk Of Fame”

“Healey will be honoured at the 16th annual Canada’s Walk of Fame red carpet and star unveilings ceremony, which is set to take place on Oct. 18 at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts.”

Not long ago I was reminded of the poignancy of the song “Angel Eyes” by the owner of “Hard Drive Promotions”, the comment was along the lines of this, “how incredible is it that a man who is blind could sing a song like “Angel Eyes” a man who was blind, singing about eyes”

Well, to me it’s simple enough, Jeff Healey was so much more than his eyes and the physical challenge that made him one of the worlds greatest artists in my time! There are so many of us who have those same eyes! Eyes that see beyond the natural realm into the true heart and soul of a person and some of us are even lucky enough to “see beyond” to what’s really inside of another human being and love them and care about them and sometimes even lucky enough to create a living legacy in the lyrics and melody of timeless songs like “Angel Eyes”

If you are on Facebook there is a website that has been created to honour Jeff Healey Band. If you are interested go find it and give it a “like” and be blessed to experience many of JHB’s songs and the fans around the world who are committed to keeping his life and music alive~

Mr. Healey, who was blind, played his guitar with the instrument flat on his lap, resulting in what Guitar Player magazine called “astoundingly fluid bends and vibrato.” He blended jazz, rock and the blues.

Mr. Healey’s greatest success came in the late 1980s, when his band recorded the album “See the Light.” It reached platinum status in the United States by selling more than one million copies and eventually two million worldwide. A single from that album, “Angel Eyes,” was the Jeff Healey Band’s only Top 40 hit, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1989.

The same year the band performed the soundtrack for “Road House,” a movie starring actor Patrick Swayze. The band also had speaking parts. Soon the group was big enough to be booked in stadiums.

Mr. Healey also played the trumpet and clarinet in his own traditional jazz band, the Jazz Wizards. He collected as many as 30,000 old-time jazz records, mainly those on 78 r.p.m., which he played as the host of an hour-long radio show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Mr. Healey, son of a firefighter, was born and raised near Toronto. He lost his sight to eye cancer when he was a year old and was given his first guitar two years later. At a school for the blind, he was shown how to play the guitar the usual way but found it felt more comfortable on his lap.

At a Toronto-area high school he played the guitar and trumpet in school bands. His early guitar inspirations were country stylists like Chet Atkins, but he moved on to Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and B. B. King, according to the reference work Contemporary Musicians. He studied music theory on his own.

He formed the Jeff Healey Band in 1985, with the drummer Tom Stephen and the bassist Joe Rockman. The trio gave as many as 300 concerts a year for about two years before signing with Arista Records in 1988. Their second album for the label (after “See the Light”) was “Hell to Pay,” which featured guest artists including George Harrison.

As the group’s popularity grew, so did their concert venues. Jon Pareles, writing in The New York Times in 1989, described the band’s music as “showy, arena-style blues rock,” although he praised Mr. Healey’s technique.

In 1990, a reader poll in Guitar Player magazine named Mr. Healey the best blues guitarist and best new talent.

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