Pearl Street by Tom Healey Band

Hopefully, we'll be doin' it for another decade!"

First with Good Friday, and for the past couple of years, the Tom Healey Band, Healey has played thousands of gigs, mostly right here in the Capital Region, with a few significant exceptions. The Tom Healey Band played in February at the Blue City Cafe in Memphis on Beale Street in the prestigious "International Blues Competition." Over the years, Healey's band has opened shows for many national acts, including Bill Wyman's Rhythm King's, Bo Diddley, Roomful of Blues, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Eddie Money, Black 47, The Boneshakers, Tinsley Ellis, Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen, the Honky Tonk Gurus and many more.

The band also has appeared at many Capital Region concert events, including Albany First Night 2001, Alive at Five, Lark Fest, the Empire State Blues Festival, Saratoga Horseshoe Blues Festival and Capt. JP's Hudson River Blues Cruise, and Ernie Williams' Birthday Concert at Albany's Palace Theatre. They also have played live on WPYX-FM's "Wakin' Up With the Wolf" program, "The Mason and Sheehan Show" on WXCR-FM, Don Week's morning program on WGY-AM and Channel 6 News on WRGB-TV.

The Tom Healey Band released its debut CD, Pearl Street, in 2001 to strong reviews. Their brand of blues, soul and Southern r 'n' b comes through loud and clear on the long-awaited disc.

In the Troy Record, reviewer Don Wilcock called Pearl Street, "the best local blues album I've ever heard. In fact I'd stand Pearl Street up next to any of the recent releases from independent labels such as Alligator and Blind Pig and argue comparisons with the masters at larger labels such as Telarc and PointBlank."

Metroland's review called Pearl Street, "Uptempo... and a fair amount of attitude... Healey also gets points for the writerly way he attacks his subjects." BLUESprint magazine said Pearl Street had "...a unique sound that builds on the heritage of classic blues artists like Howlin' Wolf and John Lee Hooker... [Healey's] slinky, scurrilous treatment on vocals is as colorful as the hipster Dr. John with a scratchy Tom Waits decadence thrown in."

The Tom Healey Band consists of Healey on vocals, guitar and harmonica, Adam Graham on bass and vocals, George Deveny on guitar, slide guitar and vocals, George Mastrangelo on sax and Bob Holz on drums.

Playing with Healey for the past decade, bassist Adam Graham lays it down with the best of them. Adam also is an accomplished soloist who nightly demonstrates his chops and creativity on the four-string to the audience. Guitarist George Deveny brought his strong bottleneck and lead guitar playing to Healey's band five years ago. An experienced player from Central New York, George has opened shows for everyone from Freddie King to Hubert Sumlin to Peter Tosh. Sax player George Mastrangelo plays hot and cool, and has been with Healey for the past two years. Joining the band for the Watervliet bash is master drummer Bob Holz, from Syracuse, whose resume includes work with some of Central New York's top bands, also is an in-demand recording session player.

After the their appearance last year at an "Alive at Five" concert opening for Bill Wyman's Rhythm King's, Albany Times-Union writer Michael Eck said of the Tom Healey Band, "Wyman's fans only found out what Healey's have known all along: He runs the best blues band in town."

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