Heather Latter
Internationally-recognized blues singer Sunday Wilde of Atikokan is set to record her fourth album this fall.
But you won’t find her at a studio. Instead, she’s booked Branch’s Seine River Lodge for a week and will record in a cabin there.
“It’s the first [album] ever in the area to be recorded at a wilderness lodge,” Wilde enthused, adding it is something she’s wanted to do for quite some time.
“And it just came about that a pretty experienced sounds engineer moved to town and he used to work at the Maple Leaf Gardens doing sound,” she explained.
“He heard what I’ve been doing and he called me . . . and we just went from there.”
Wilde is busy right now getting the musicians lined up, the schedule set, and the money in place.
“It’s a big job but it’s coming together,” she remarked, noting she’s happy to have musicians coming to town to help with her album.
“A lot of times now with technology, musicians don’t even sometimes sit in the same room because they layer down tracks . . . and the technology is easy that way,” Wilde said.
“But I didn’t want to do it like that,” she stressed. “I want to do it where everyone is together.
“And I want to do it where I live,” she added. “A few musicians have said, ‘Come to Toronto, it would be easier.’
“And I said, ‘Nah, I want to do it here.’”
Wilde said recording in a cabin will offer a unique sound to her album because the acoustics are supposed to be warmer.
“Mostly I wanted to be at that kind of setting to be undistracted, so we can focus on what we’re doing,” she reasoned.
“This is going to be intense,” she added. “We’ll be engrossed in it.”
Wilde also is hoping the lodge will help inspire her blues music due to the infamous “hot stove” murder that took place nearby back in 1944.
As the Fort Frances Times reported back then, a group of men from Atikokan tortured a 49-year-old Flanders woman by burning her on a stove when she refused to tell them where she kept her money.
Three of the men “paid with their lives on the gallows in the jail” in Fort Frances, which was the final hanging here.
“So I think it’s kind of fitting that decades later, a blues album is going to be recorded there,” Wilde said.
“If anybody went through misery, it was that lady . . . and a lot of my songs are kind of like that.”
Wilde noted the songs’ subject matter also is about living alone in a small town.
“And that is going to encompass that my mom died a little while ago and I’m single, so all of a sudden I’m really alone,” she remarked.
“Some of the songs are about addiction, so some of them are kind of powerful in that way.”
Her new album will incorporate a boogie-woogie blues style, as well as jazz.
“I think it’s going to be well received,” she enthused. “I’m excited.”
Wilde also wants to use the unique recording process to inspire other young musicians.
“I’d really like to have [some] out to the recording at least one night,” she said. “So they can see what goes on and hopefully be inspired.
“Because where we live, it’s isolated and hard doing music here.
“It’s harder, but I want to get that across to the young people,” she stressed. “You don’t have to leave—you can do it here.”
Once the recording process is done, the music has to be levelled and mastered by another company, in addition to getting the artwork completed and registering the songs.
But Wilde noted the album, entitled “He Bought Me a Blue Nightgown,” will be on sale before Christmas.
The singer/songwriter also has set up a fundraising campaign online to help with the album.
“Right now on the Internet, there are a few different fundraising forms for artists and musicians and writers,” she explained.
“People are raising funds by their fans contributing to projects.”
Those interested in making a financial contribution can visit her website at www.indiegogo.com/sundaywilde
Some contributions come with perks, such as pre-buying the album, visiting the recording site, or hiring Wilde for a house concert—depending on how much is donated.
“It’s a really good way for people to be a part of it or support it if they want,” she reasoned, noting the minimum contribution is $2 so it’s really reasonable.
“Any money raised through that is just going to help me do it that much better because it’s a lot of money for promotion, etc.,” she explained.
The campaign will receive all of the funds contributed by Sept. 11.
Wilde’s previous albums have done well worldwide, ranking #1 on the Global Blues Charts on AirplayDirect, #22 Alltime Blues Albums, #7 on the Roots Music Report for the top 50 Blues Albums, and #6 on the Roots music report for radio play in Canada, among others.
One of her songs, “THAT Man Drives Me Mad,” was nominated for the 10th-annual Independent Music Awards for Best Blues Song of 2011, and won the voters’ choice award in that category.
“It’s really cool because of where I live,” Wilde said. “Most days I sit alone at the piano playing and writing, and for someone thousands of miles away to hear that song that came out of something deep inside of me is just amazing.”
Her focus is just to keep doing it.
“I need to do it. I’m driven to do it,” she admitted. “Not everybody likes the music and that’s fine, but I think a lot of people are really proud for me.”
After the release of her album, Wilde is planning to visit Memphis, Tenn. in the new year for the International Blues Challenge.
While she won’t be completing in the event, she sees it as an excellent networking opportunity.
