Phillip Sayce Announces Album Release and Tour

Monday July 11th sees the release of "Ruby Electric" - Philip Sayce's latest album on Provogue Records. The album showcases previously unreleased studio and live tracks and includes the single "Let The Love In" featuring a duet with Melissa Etheridge.

The album coincides with a short UK tour that will take in dates at the London Borderline (July 25), Bristol Tunnels (July 27), Holmfirth Picturedrome (July 28) and Manchester Band on the Wall (July 29). 24 Hour Ticket Hotline: 0871 230 1101. Book Online:www.seetickets.com, www.thegigcartel.com, www.kililive.com (the latter URL for the London gig only).

Ruby Electric is a unique album that features a collection of songs divided into two different volumes. All the songs were recorded with some of Sayce's favourite musicians and friends. The album is currently #2 in Amazon UK's official Blues pre-sale chart.

Volume 1, recorded at Sunset Sound and Lion's Share, Hollywood, was produced by Dave Cobb and mixed by Mark Rains. The songs were recorded live in the studio through a collection of vintage equipment and musical instruments, utilizing Cobb's signature recording and production techniques.

Volume 2, recorded on tour in France, Germany, and Holland in 2010, was mixed by the legendary recording engineer Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin) in April 2011.

"I'd been looking for the right circumstances to release all of these songs," says Sayce. "The studio tracks on Volume 1 remained unavailable internationally. We remixed and re-mastered the tracks, picked some alternate takes, and included a live version of Daydream Tonight (the latter originally appeared on Sayce's 2010 album Innerevolution). As soon as we paired the songs up with the recent live recordings from last year's European tour, the album became Ruby Electric.

Ruby Electric features Kenny Aronoff (drums), Joel Gottschalk (bass), Fritz Lewak (drums), and Fred Mandel (piano, organ), and as previously mentioned, Melissa Etheridge signs a duet with Sayce on the first single Let The Love In. The album was produced and recorded by Eddie Kramer, Dave Cobb, and Mark Rains.

Says Sayce - "I hope you feel the passion, joy, excitement and honesty that went into each of these performances, both in the studio and live in concert."

24 Hour Ticket Hotline: 0871 230 1101
www.seetickets.com www.thegigcartel.com

Monday 25th July 2011
London Borderline
Box Office: 0844 871 8803
General Admission: £12.50
Book Online: www.kililive.com
Doors: 7:00pm
Stage Time: 9:00pm
Address: 16 Manette Street, London, W1D 4AR

Wednesday 27th July 2011
Bristol Tunnels
Box Office: 0117 929 9008, 0845 605 0255
General Admission: £12.50
Book Online: www.thetunnelsbristol.co.uk
Doors / Stage Time: 7:30pm / 8:00pm
Address: 2 Bristol and Exeter Mews, Lower Approach Road,
Temple Meads, Bristol, BS1 6QB

Thursday 28th July 2011
** Holmfirth Picturedrome
Special Guest: Joanne Shaw Taylor
Box Office: 0871 230 1101
General Admission: £15.00
Book Online: www.picturedrome.net
Doors: 7:30pm
Stage Time: 8:00pm
Address: Market Walk, Holmfirth, HD 9 7DA

Friday 29th July 2011
Manchester Band on the Wall
Box Office: 0161 832 1111
General Admission: £12.50
Book Online: www.bandonthewall.org
Doors: 7:30pm
Stage Time: 9:00pm
Address: Swann Street, Manchester, M4 5JZ

 

Philip Sayce - Official 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.

At the age of 15 he was playing guitar in his first band. 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, playing gigs at the Montreux Jazz Festival and around the world, Sayce felt it was time to move on.

In 2001 he moved to LA 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. The album 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 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, Mike Bradford, Dave Cobb and Marti Frederiksen, 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.

More varied than Peace Machine, and overall more sophisticated and more polished in terms of songwriting, sonics and performance, Innerevoltion is a stylish, engaging and thrilling album which brought Sayce to the attention of a lot of new fans of guitar music.

In July 2011, Sayce will release the album Ruby Electric, featuring a duet with Melissa Etheridge on the song Let The Love In.

The album is a combination of studio and live recordings (the latter were recorded in France, Germany and Holland during Sayce's 2011 Innerevolution European tour). Sayce is currently in Nashville recording his next studio album which is set for March 2012 release.

 

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