See The Light

My favourite Jeff Healey song

Being a Torontonian, I’ve heard so many “I saw him when” stories about Jeff. Everyone remembers the blind kid who played the guitar on his lap and was the best guitarist they’d ever seen. I’m pretty sure our paths must have crossed at one point but if they did, I don’t have a memory for it. What I do have is his music.

Most people who knew of him outside of Canada recognized him from the movie Roadhouse, where his band was the house band in the bar. (Now I could be wrong about that. After all, a teaser for an upcoming documentary about him shows appearances on Johnny Carson, David Letterman, and Arsenio Hall and he did have two Grammy nominations for rock instrumental.) He made some great music before he died of cancer at age 41 but this is my favourite. The classic blues groove and his great guitar licks makes me so happy every time I listen to it.

This is the second video for this song. The first one was a simple black and white video of his playing that was made when he was still unsigned and when Arista signed him and released his debut album of the same name, they shot this. It’s directed by James Yukich, who has directed over 200 music videos, then also branched out into shooting standup. You can see his distinct playing here.

Enjoy your song of the day!