Ruf (Idn)
2008
Mess Of Blues
About This Album
While Mess of Blues may not be the last Jeff Healey recording we see, it is the one that will be accorded as his epitaph, seeing that it was issued in America a scant two months after his death just three weeks shy of his 42nd birthday. There is no ambulance chasing or grave robbing process involved here. The album is sanctioned; it was set to be issued before he passed away. Healey wrote the liner notes for this date (his first blues release in eight years!), and explained the song choices he made for it. The strange thing when considering all the different recordings he made during his short life is that Healey's career is bookended -- on tape at least -- by blistering electric blues-rock albums. The very genre that established Healey's considerable (and deserved) reputation as a guitarist is also the one that underscored it at the end.

Mess of Blues contains ten cuts, all of them chosen by Healey from what he considered "audience favorites," rather than his own or his fine band's preferred tunes. Four of these were recorded in front of audiences at the Islington Academy in London and, appropriately enough, at Healey's Roadhouse (his club) in Toronto. The other six were cut at Studio 92 in Canada by Norm Barker and Richard Uglow.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7)

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