Athens GA's premier blues band for 25 years!

The Georgia Healers are an Athens' institution--a little bit of Texas blues in Georgia.

Checkered History:

 The Georgia Healers were actually known a just The Healers for 24 years. Founding members Donnie Ray Simmonds and John Straw crossed paths in 1984 just as John was coming off the road with The T. Graham Brown Band. Donnie was just returning from spending a decade in Los Angeles , where he was a regular on the scene. It provided Donnie Ray a wealth of experience-- which included the honor of sitting-in with Hound Dog Taylor and Willie Dixon, but not much in the pocket book.

 

As Donnie Ray & John built a local following around Athens , they also had a stable of talented guitar players & drummers pass through the ranks. Notable guitar players through the years included: Frankie Lee Robinson (Frankie Lee’s Blues Mission),  Jimmy Boleman*(Luther “Houserocker” Johnson), Chris Cook (Healers guitarist on 1997 Release I     Believe”) and John Davis*  (Healers guitarist from 1997 to present).

Jimmy and John are both in the current Georgia Healers line-up—the first two guitar crew in the band’s history. In addition, current Georgia Healer drummer Steve Harding has toured with everyone from Tinsley Ellis to Playboy Chick Willis. Steve was also The Healers drummer in the late 80’s.

 All through-out the 90’s, The Healers kept plugging away with long stints as the house band at The Roadhouse and The High Hat Blues Club. There's a long list of well known, Athens' Rock-n-Roll stars that have partaken in an evening with The Healers. Patterson Hood of the Drive-By-Truckers was their soundman (more monitor on the vocals Patterson!). During this time, they also made Tybee Island ’s Café Loco a home away from home. The Healers were also very influential in the Atlanta scene during the 90’s, along with other great bands like Felix & The Cats and Stoney Brooks & JuJu Root.

 For the last decade, The Healers have kept a low profile—playing limited gigs in Athens only. Some members were off on tour with other bands. Some were just off dealing with life. As the great Neal Pattman characterized The Healers, “if it weren’t for booze and women, there wouldn’t be blues fan in the world who didn’t know em’”. If you added some members general distaste for touring to the quote, you’d be right on the money.

As The Healers re-formed in 2008, Donnie set out to gather-up the best band he could find. Jimmy and John came-out of semi-retirement to team-up for two guitar line-up. The next step was to “borrow” his old buddies John Straw and Steve Harding who were playing in another well-known Atlanta blues band. Without any big intentions or gameplan, The Healers quietly began to book a few gigs. Not many of the old bars are left standing in Athens —The High Hat went under in 1999 and The Roadhouse quit having live music. After the first few gigs (with no rehearsal as usual), they all looked at each other like they might have found their old mojo. So, unlike The Healers of old, they actually decided that a few rehearsals might not be a bad idea.

 

At one of the subsequent gigs, Producer John Keane (REM, Widespread Panic, Indigo Girls, Uncle Tupelo……) made them an offer to come into his studio. After about 10 hours of total recording time, they completed their new release “Heal This!”. “We basically played all 15 songs twice and took the best cut of the two”. Not too many bands, blues or otherwise, can cut an entire CD in 10 hours, especially one the quality of Heal This!.

 

With the release of “Heal This!”, they learned that a blues band out of NY City was using the name The Healers. Being a bit naïve, the original Healers never legally protected their name. They were then served a cease & desist order by the NY band who readily admits stealing the name from the Georgia band. NY lawyers—fuck-em.. What else was there to do but rename the band?

 

“Heal This!” has received countless glowing reviews from all over the globe and countless small label offers. Not willing to hit the tour schedule full-time, signing with a label is not currently an option (small labels these days don’t make money from CD sales, they make more off of booking tour dates). “Heal This!” has sold over 1,200 copies in 6 months since it has been released (Nov 2009). While that might not sound like much for a big label, that would make it a best seller for a well know blues label.

 With all the recent attention, The Georgia Healers aren’t too interested in making it a big deal--.”They can come to Georgia if they want to see us”--although, they are breaking tradition by planning a short European tour in the fall. Over half of “Heal This!” sales are from France , Germany , UK and Netherlands (look out Amsterdam !). "Unless you travel to Austin or Chicago, you’re not going to see a better live blues band than The Georgia Healers".