JEFF HEALEY: Heal My Soul (BLUES): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

On March 25, 2016, Jeff Healey should have turned 50. Unfortunately, cancer decided otherwise by taking him away 8 years earlier. "Heal My Soul" is composed of unreleased tracks recorded between 1996 and 1998 and sees Jeff Healey surrounded by the historic line-up of his first albums, when the band was a trio with bassist Joe Rockman and drummer Tom Stephen as the rhythm section (although the latter only plays on two tracks, the drums being held by Dean Glover on the others).

Produced by Roger Costa, this unexpected gift turns out to be the soundtrack of a waking dream. The trio appears at the top of its art and the soli are as numerous as incandescent. Rarely has Jeff Healey given them so much space on a studio album. Translating the power of the catchiest tracks ('Daze Of The Night', 'Under A Stone'), showing an intensity contrasting with the false confidence displayed by the lyrics ('Moodswing'), the guitarist evokes a palette of feelings seemingly without limit. The pair Rockman / Glover also ensures by bringing to each title the adequate tempo. 'Please' benefits from an irresistible groove, when the drums are slamming and heavy on 'Put The Shoe On The Other Foot'.

Each track deserves to be listened to again and again, dazzling from the very first time and revealing new treasures with each passage. Delicacy is the order of the day on a tender 'Baby Blue' with a poignant solo, on the highway song-like ballad 'Love In Her Eyes', both bright and catchy, or on the acoustic and melancholic 'All The Saints'. On the contrary, the version of Richard Thompson's 'I Misunderstood' plunges the listener into a darkness and despair reinforced by a new solo of great intensity. In this register dedicated to darker feelings, it is impossible to miss a 'Kiss The Ground You Walk On' translating the incomprehension and the wandering of a soul broken by a departure. And then there is this monumental 'Temptation'. Based on a Native American tempo, it varies the intensities but remains slow and suffocating like the burning sun of a southern desert, roasting the flesh and blurring the mind. Again, the solo is hallucinating, almost disturbing.

The whole thing ends on the aptly named 'It's The Last Time', a moving mid-tempo ballad that leaves the listener in shock. It's hard to accept that the author of these moments of grace has disappeared and that these are probably the last testimonies of his genius with unlimited generosity. Rarely has a posthumous album reached such a level of perfection that, eight years after the death of its author, revives the pain caused by a loss that appears more and more irreplaceable. - Official website

JEFF HEALEY

HEAL MY SOUL

MASCOT LABEL GROUP

BLUES