Steve Earle plays to a new generation . . . Tracey Bryn of the Beehive, (expletives deleted) . . . Jeff Healey Band: plucking all the right strings . . . : From a Lap-Top Start

Like many who’ve made brief attempts to master the guitar, Jeff Healey has tried a time or two to wrap his left hand around the neck of an electric guitar and strum with his right hand, only to become frustrated and give up. “I find it very, very uncomfortable,” says Healey. “I can play a few chords, but I can’t play any lead at all.”

The difference between Healey and most people is that Healey had already taught himself an entirely different--some claim revolutionary--way of playing the guitar.

Blind since the age of 1, Healey began to pick up the guitar at 3, playing it on his lap. Now 22, the Toronto native has become the latest in a long line of rock Guitar Heroes while still playing a lap-top guitar. Part of the notoriety stems from Healey’s perhaps being even more of a wonder to behold than he is to hear--playing on stage in a chair, all five fingers on his left hand sliding across the neck from above, his right hand bending the pliant strings into blues-rock submission.

It’s not just visual curiosity that’s getting the Jeff Healey Band by. As evidence that the trio’s appeal transcends the voyeurism that attends his strange playing style and blindness, his record company can point to the successful album-rock radio run of “Confidence Man,” a John Hiatt-penned track that’s the leadoff number from the trio’s fast-rising debut album, “See the Light.”

Popular interest is bound to increase further yet upon the release next year of “Road House,” a Patrick Swayze action vehicle that prominently features Healey, drummer Tom Stephen and bassist Joe Rockman as the house band of the title bar.

Filmgoers will join those who’ve seen Healey in concert or on “The Tonight Show” in knowing he clearly aims to be a showman in the tradition of Jimi Hendrix. Occasionally standing up from his chair during more heated instrumental passages, Healey pulls out most every trick Hendrix had up his sleeve (playing with his teeth, behind his head, etc.), with the exception of actually setting his precious ax on fire every night.

“Well, I couldn’t afford to,” Healey said. “Not that I probably would anyway. But I think you have to be an entertainer to a certain degree--not only as a thinking sort of musician, but also to a bigger public that isn’t so much musically aware. They’re not analyzing the notes and saying, ‘Oh wow, he hit that chord.’ They’re just going for the entertainment value--and that includes getting up, grooving around with the music and throwing the guitar up and down and around.”