I missed this: in Wednesday's Chicago Tribune there's an obituary for Jeff Healey. He died at the age of 41, of lung cancer.

I really enjoyed a lot of his music, and his interpretations of other people's tunes. I have a great version of him doing WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS, and right as I read the obituary (I'm not making this up) a song came on the office iPod, STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH YOU, the old Stealer's Wheel song covered by the Jeff Healey Band. I love both covers, and then of course there's his signature song, ANGEL EYES. We covered that tune in several bands I've been in, and I actually played it for my wife (and sang it) at our wedding 10 years ago (almost).

He also starred in the Patrick Swayze movie ROADHOUSE, with he and his bandmates playing the roles of the house band at the titular venue. They did a great cover of WHITE ROOM in that movie. I'd love to find that version. And of course there was an obligatory cover of ROADHOUSE BLUES. Ironically Swayze just announced his own battle with some sort of cancer...

A couple other originals of his that I liked include FULL CIRCLE and CONFIDENCE MAN.

I will miss the blind guitar phenom.