Philip Sayce Nov UK Tour/Album
PHILIP SAYCE BIOGRAPHY
Philip Sayce was born in Aberystwyth, Wales, and grew up in Toronto, Canada, where his family moved to when he was two years old. He grew up in a musical household and was exposed to his parents’ eclectic record collection that included Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder and Dire Straits. When his parents took him to an Eric Clapton concert, he was awestruck. He was instantly drawn to the guitar.
By the time he was 15 he was playing guitar in his first band; he was up and running. He soon became a regular fixture on the Toronto club scene, where his fluid soloing and guitar skills won him many fans. With an insatiable appetite for jam sessions at the likes of Grossman’s Tavern in Toronto, Sayce began rapidly distilling his own guitar style and tonal palette from a melting pot of influences that included Clapton, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Cray, and in particular Stevie Ray Vaughan, to whom he is most often compared.
As a teenager, Sayce was held in such high regard that, after jamming on stage with one of his heroes, guitar player and fellow Canadian Jeff Healey, he was invited to join Healey’s band. After three-and-a-half years with Healey’s band, playing gigs with them at the Montreux Jazz Festival and around the world, Sayce felt it was time to move on.
In 2001 he moved to Los Angeles and joined Uncle Kracker, and was with the band when they had their massive US No.1 Drift Away. He starred in and wrote the music for the short film Cockroach Blue, directed by the award-winning Robert Crossman, which received high acclaim when it was shown at the Woodstock Film Festival. Then, in 2003, Grammy and Oscar winner Melissa Etheridge came calling (”very talented - like Stevie Ray Vaughan,” she enthused), and he enjoyed an “awesome” time playing and recording with her band until 2008.
During his stint with Melissa, in 2005 Sayce released his debut solo album, Peace Machine, using what he describes as Etheridge’s “shit-hot” band. Recorded live in the studio, it’s full of raw, high-energy, low-maintenance retro-blues delivered with startling punch and real style, and showcases Sayce as soulful, powerfully expressive vocalist as well as a supremely talented guitarist and all-round musician. The album also includes a stunning version of the Neil Young classic Cinnamon Girl, the song that always makes an appearance in Sayce’s live shows.
With his jam-club years in his pocket, live is where Sayce shines brightest. His band performs with a potent mixture of power and finesse, and as the focal point he regularly pulls the trigger and unleashes visceral, unforgettable guitar solos.
April 2010 saw the release of, INNEREVOLUTION, Philip Sayce’s most recent studio album recorded with his current touring band - keyboardist Fred Mandel (Queen, Supertramp, Elton John, Alice Cooper), bassist Joel Gottschalk and drummer Ryan MacMillan (Matchbox 20). Some of the songs co-written with Richard Marx, busbee, Mike Bradford, Dave Cobb and Marti Frederiksen among others, establishes Philip Sayce not only as one of the finest blues guitarists, but also as a musician, singer and songwriter with tremendous talent.
There’s the driving, exhilarating opener Changes, with its guitar-motif nods to Hendrix and The Beatles; the broken-heart questioning of Are You Ready, and the thrown-it-all-away regret of the pulsing Bitter Monday. The funked-up, get-down Little Miss America, on which Sayce pushes his voice to the edge, and at the other end of the intensity scale is a diamond among other gems on the album: Daydream Tonight, a mid-tempo, slow-burning ballad delivered with passion and giving off a hint of the piquancy of some of a young Lenny Kravitz’s finest, most soulful moments.
The album also includes a cover of the Automatic Man song My Pearl. “I just love the song,” Sayce enthuses. “I wanted to bring my love of funk and soul to this track, and it’s so much fun to play.” More varied than Peace Machine, and overall more sophisticated and more polished in terms of songwriting, sonics and performance, INNEREVOLUTION is a stylish, engaging and thrilling album that should bring Philip Sayce to the attention of a lot of new fans of guitar music.
Philip Sayce - Official Websites
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