Jeff Healey - Mess Of Blues

I'm Torn Down - 4
How Blue Can You Get - 3
Sugar Sweet - 4
Jamalaya - 3
The Weight - 4
Mess O' Blues - 3
It's Only Money - 3
Like A Hurricane - 3
Sittin' On Top Of The World - 3
Shake, Rattle & Roll - 3
Total - 33 stars / 10 tracks = 3.30 stars, normalized to 3.4 stars

The instrumentals on this album are somewhere in the area of mindblowing. Even for someone who, despite continuous effort, cannot call themselves a fan of Blues music, I admit that I could spend hours listening to the kinds of solos that Healey churns out in tracks like "I'm Torn Down."

Aside from an authentic cover of The Band's "The Weight," the other great song is "Sugar Sweet," which, like "I'm Torn Down," has a killer keyboard solo. Couple that with infectious, grooving vocals, and you've got a great song.

The rest of the album is more conventional Blues fare, which, didn't turn my crank as much as the other three. Still, there are flashes of incredible instrumentals, but they're just not pervasiveness to overcome the standard Blues-iness of the songs. Like I said, I've never really loved the Blues, but with Jeff Healey, I come close.