Off Topic...for the Guitar players and the fans....Jeff Healey dead of Cancer

[Steve Helmick]

I can't play guitar at all, but I sure think this guy could. I heard on the radio, early this AM, that Jeff Healey died of cancer, yesterday, March 2, 2k8, at age 41. The cancer was the same sort that took his eyesight as a baby.    Steve

Edit: Huh. I couldn't get the YouTube icon and code to work. What's the sekrit?  Here's a regular link. I loved this song when George Harrison did it, and I like this a lot better. 

[Elwyn Aud]

The name didn't ring a bell right off but I recognized the face from somewhere. Then I remembered-The movie Roadhouse.

[Joe Gilbert]

He was ther guy that played the guitar on his lap in the movie Road House with Patrick Swayze as the bar bouncer.

[Mike Ferguson]

I don't know the gent. Was he a Blues player?  Seems an awful lot of them are, or were. blind. My favoirte is still Blind Willy Johson.

His initial albums were blues, but he'd moved into jazz in more recent years.

Whatever the genre, he was utterly brilliant.

[Randy Powell]

Jeff Healy was the guy that BB King said was the best player he'd ever heard. I saw the Jeff Healy band in concert 2 or 3 times. Some of the best blues guitar you ever heard. His version of Blue Jean Blues was out of this world. The guy could play.

I am sad to hear this. He was one of my favorites.

[Will Hinton]

THANKS SO MUCH for putting this thread on!  I've been a would-be guitarist for over fifty years and never heard of Jeff Healy!  And I'm blues/jazz nut!!!!  I will definitely (like as soon as I finish this) be adding his albums to my Ipod!  I am always amazed at guys who play in the style he does.  I've not seen more than a few but each and every one has been brilliant.  This guy certainly was.  The only time I ever have a guitar in my lap like that is to change the strings backstage and I can't imagine playing one that way.
Thanks again,
Will

[proparc]

I have been following Jeff for years. Jeff was an example of overcoming adversity to come out on top. sorely missed.

[Charlie Pate]

THANKS SO MUCH for putting this thread on!  I've been a would-be guitarist for over fifty years and never heard of Jeff Healy!  And I'm blues/jazz nut!!!!  I will definitely (like as soon as I finish this) be adding his albums to my Ipod!  I am always amazed at guys who play in the style he does.  I've not seen more than a few but each and every one has been brilliant.  This guy certainly was.  The only time I ever have a guitar in my lap like that is to change the strings backstage and I can't imagine playing one that way.
Thanks again,
Will

Another lap top player was "Thumbs Carlisle" . He worked with Lil Jimmy Dickens and Roger Miller in their
hey day. He could put so many licks in a measure ,it would make your nose bleed!.
 As a child ,Thumbs  tried , but couldn,t play the guitar ,because his fingers were too small to span the fret board
 of the instrument. Finally in utter desperation,he put the guitar in his lap and proceeded to learn how to chord it
 from above with his fingers ,developing his own style and method. he could play about any style with plenty of feeling.Proof! you can make it ,if you try.
AS for me , I,m still trying. I now am up to six chords
; The latest being a G7

[Mike Lauerman]

There was a country/Western bar in Santa Clara that had jam sessions every sunday.
Jeff Healy and his band were playing a job in San Francisco, and stopped in...I had the pleasure of sitting in with him, (I played harmonica for some 50 years) he was great...a humorist, also. Every time a country vocalist would sing some country blues, Jeff would pronounce a 4th chord lead-in to the next stanza.
Drove the singers nuts! When I saw him in Road House, I called everyone I knew!