Mess of Blues also marks Healey's return to recording blues music for the first time in many years---he has been releasing jazz albums as Jeff Healey and the Jazz Wizards since 2002. That being said, and certainly not wanting to speak ill of the dead, but these recordings do not seem particularly inspired. Healey is a phenomenal guitarist and a decent vocalist and he is not at a lack for chops here but the material selected for Mess of Blues is questionable.

In the album's liner notes Healey says these songs, all covers, are not a bunch of favorites picked by the band. Instead they are songs that supposedly consistently get the biggest reactions when the band plays live. Somehow that doesn't translate onto this recording, especially with tepid versions of the Hank Williams classic "Jambalaya," the Band's chestnut "The Weight" and Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane." There are some hot moments though, like the rollicking "I'm Torn Down" with its smoking piano solo from Dave Murphy and an awesome reading of Leonard Feather's "How Blue Can You Get."