Mess of Blues (Ruf): B-
After years of quietly devoting himself to the trumpet and traditional jazz, blind Canadian bluesman Healey picked up his guitar one last time and went out the way he came in in 1985 - blazing away in front of live audiences. This rootsy valedictory album catches him in full cry before he succumbed to a lifelong struggle with cancer in March. Although Healey’s chief distinction as a player was the lap-steel manner in which he played the instrument and the showy bends and runs he produced, “Mess of Blues” documents the passion with which he played and sang, and which he inspired in his fans. Download: “Sugar Sweet.”
