Already Gone

The Zoo Crew is rolling out "Already Gone" from the Philip Sayce Group self-titled album, and if you have not heard this one before, settle in because it is pure early fire from a kid who was already turning heads on the Toronto circuit. This track sits right in the middle of that debut record, a blues-rock workout that shows Philip writing and singing his own stuff while the guitar just keeps climbing. It is the kind of cut that makes you lean forward, all drive and attitude without a single wasted note. For those of us who dig deep into the records that built the players, this one is a window into where it all started before the bigger stages and the bigger names.

Philip put this album together when he was still a teenager fresh out of high school in Toronto. He had been grinding the club circuit, and after one solid showcase the folks at Hypnotic Records and MCA came calling. The whole thing landed with some real notice in Billboard and Guitar Player, the kind of early write-ups that let you know the kid was not just another local gunslinger. "Already Gone" is one of the originals he wrote himself, sitting alongside covers and other band tracks recorded across a few different Toronto rooms with a rotating cast of players. You can hear the hunger in it, the way the guitar bites and the vocal pushes like he already knew this was the path. It is not a polished major-label product; it is the sound of someone who had been living in the jams and the late sets and finally got the chance to capture it on tape.

That album was the first real statement, and it set the stage for everything that followed. Philip has talked in later interviews about how the Toronto scene was the proving ground, places like Grossman's Tavern where the open jams would run long and the old heads would test you. He was out there at sixteen, already a regular, soaking up the blues and the rock and figuring out his own voice on the Strat. The record captures that moment before he stepped up with Jeff Healey for the world tours and the big rooms. You listen to "Already Gone" and you hear the foundation, the same fire that later lit up records with Melissa Etheridge and the solo albums that followed. It is the sound of a player who did not wait around for permission.

Philip Sayce was born in Aberystwyth, Wales, in 1976, and the family moved to Toronto when he was just two years old. His parents kept the house filled with records, Eric Clapton, Ry Cooder, Dire Straits, and plenty of the British stuff from the sixties. That soundtrack was always playing, and it stuck. He picked up the guitar a little later than some of the prodigies, around fifteen, starting on a Sears acoustic his folks had around the house. He and his buddy Cassius Pereira, the drummer, started their first band right there in high school, practicing in basements and figuring out the songs that moved them. Stevie Ray Vaughan's passing hit him hard around that time, and it only pushed him further into the guitar. By sixteen he was already a fixture in the Toronto clubs, Grossman's, the Silver Dollar, the Horseshoe, sitting in on the jams and building a following the hard way.

He has said in interviews that seeing Jeff Healey play live was one of those moments that locked it in, and later Healey himself would invite him into the band after hearing him around town. Before that, though, there was the work of learning the instrument, burning through tapes and records, rewinding the solos until his fingers caught up. The debut album came out of that period, the one that got the magazine nods and proved he could write as well as play. From there the road opened up, three and a half years with Healey, then the move to Los Angeles, the runs with Uncle Kracker, and the years with Melissa Etheridge that included the Academy Awards stage. Every step started with those early Toronto nights and the record that captured the first real songs.

If you want to dig deeper into where Philip is at now, the official site is the place to start, and you can follow along on Facebook and Instagram for the tour updates and the new music. There is also a solid Philip Sayce Fans group on Facebook where the people who have been there since the early days trade stories and keep the conversation going. All of that lives alongside the work we do here at THE ZOO, spinning the cuts that still hit and reminding everyone where the real rock and roll lives. This one from the Philip Sayce Group is a perfect example, a track that shows the player before the legend, still hungry and already gone in the best possible way. Keep it loud, Zoo Freaks.