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ARTIST SUMMARY
Genres: Blues / Vocal Jazz / R&B
Label: Independent
Management: Ange Sponchia
ARTIST BIO
WINNER of the Voters Choice Award for Best Blues Song at the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards Sunday is celebrating the launch of her new website – www.sundaywilde.com, includes tours, videos, pics and more.
Her latest release hit number ONE on the Global Blues Charts on AirplayDirect for radio downloads around the world. One song from her latest release has also been nominated for the 10th Annual Independent Music Awards – Best Blues Song, the only woman and the only Canadian in the category.
FEATURED BLUES BREAKER on Elwood's House of Blues Radio Hour
New release – "What Man!?? Oh THAT Man!!! – with guest musicians Ronnie Hayward (Rockabilly and Country Hall of Fame ) and David West (international reknowned guitarist with the Papa Duke Band Ukraine) with 10 original Blues with a smidgen of jazz is available at CDBABY and other digital retailers. The album has ranked as high as #2 on the Roots Music Report for Canada, and #7 on the Top 50 Blues International and is 5 star rated at emusic.com and played on At the Crossroads Blues Radio.
Independent
Music Awards Blues Song Category Nominee for 2011
New Release – "Broken String of Pearls" Loaded with jazzy
bluesy originals.....straight from the heart, and born from
the wilderness, raw, powerful....available at ITUNES,
Cdbaby, Amazon, Napster.
#6 on The Roots Music Radio Report Across Canada, #1 on
LURADIO in Blues/Roots, #3 on The EX
She is a powerful and intense vocalist, a rare voice that
speaks from the primal soul. Sunday is a songwriter who
explores the subjects of grief, addiction, love and the
torment of social and family dysfunction. Her lyrics and
delivery make it abundantly clear that she speaks from
experience and authority.
MORE ABOUT SUNDAY WILDE
Sunday wilde
Blues r&B jazz siren reminiscent of vintage juke joints
Independent
Music Awards Nominee for Best Blues Song
2011
#
6 on the Roots Radio Music Report in Canada, #1 on
LURADIO Roots Charts for three weeks, #10 on the
Reverbnation Blues Canada Charts and recently launched
her third album - What man!? oh THAT man
available at Cdbaby and playing on roots and blues
stations
Terry Gatorman Lape, VP of the Chicago Blues Society
says...."Sunday Wilde’s music goes to the edge of the Blues
and Beyound"
Marcia Dawson, Roaming Reviews Magazine
says..........."wilde woman vocals, raw, rip
roaring sound machine, a force to be reckoned with, yet
feminine."
Molly Johnson
says………“I have heard the music. I
am impressed.”
Stewart Communications and
house concert host says…“...attacks her songs with
an intensity...moves from pleading lyricism to growling
determination.”
Sunday
is from the wilds of a northern Ontario small town, but she
has been found singing everywhere from small logging and
mining towns at coffee houses, funeral parlours, and blues
joints and all the way to large festivals, house concerts
and bars in bustling metropolises.
She is a powerful and intense vocalist, a rare voice that
speaks from the primal soul. Sunday is a songwriter who
explores the subjects of grief, addiction, love and the
torment of social and family dysfunction. Her lyrics and
delivery make it abundantly clear that she speaks from
experience and authority. She has won jazz and blues awards
for her original compositions on garageband, and has been
ranked as high as number # 6 on the Roots Music Report for
radio play across Canada. She has recently received an
Ontario Arts Council award for an upcoming recording
project, and in 2009 received a songwriting grant award
from the Ontario Arts Council. Music from her latest
release plays worldwide on many blues, roots and womens
radio stations.
She has played with such great performers as Reno jack,
Ronnie Hayward, Nick Moss and the Flipflops, Fathead, Terry
Wilkins (Roughtrade), Little Miss Higgins, David West, to
name a few. Her musical influences come from a array of
sources such as the wilderness, Ruth Brown, Sister Rosetta
Tharpe, Bessie Smith, Big Bill Broonzy mixed in with Tom
Waits, Billie Holiday and Ella
Fitzgerald.
She
continues to create, explore, interpret and innovate,
melding divergent styles and influences, pushing the
envelope of her craft further. All the while enthralling
audiences with her live performances and singular
style.
The consolations of the blues…and desserts
by Mike McKinnon
6 June 2011
Wilde’s work in Toronto the past year is plainly evident in her performance. She is now in command on the stage, quickly established a light and easy rapport with the audience, and performs with a warmth and sensitivity that give her material a whole new life. She also worked beautifully with Lamont, a music student at Lakehead University, who worked seamlessly with the lead provided by Wilde, and showed a real feel and talent for his instrument when given the opportunity to expand on the music. The duo played in Kenora on Thursday.
Wilde’s latest CD (What Man!?? Oh THAT Man!!!) spent last week at number one on Air Play Direct’s global radio play charts (blues), and the song That man drives me mad, is in the running for the blues song of the year at the Independent Music Awards.
Sunday Wilde back from Toronto to promote her new CD in the North
Press release–27 May 2011
Her stint in Toronto included a CD release party at The Cameron House, a Queen Street West club famous for hosting Canadian artists such as Molly Johnson and Blue Rodeo. Amongst the Cameron House gigs, she also played a few other well known clubs such as the Dominion on Queen (guesting with Rockabilly Hall of Famer Ronnie Hayward) and also got a chance to play on a piano at Chalkers Pub that was worth more than her Atikokan home (much to her delight!).
Back home, her Northwest tour includes a show in Atikokan Wednesday, June 1, at Little Darlings Café. The Atikokan Quetico Trading Post will co-host. Little Darlings Cafe will offer a special dessert bar (ticket price includes dessert and beverages), including special desserts for those with gluten sensitivities as well as low sugar and non-sugar selections. Sunday will be joined by upright bass player Chris Lamont and opening for the blues duo will be Bernard Shakey and the Paulson Boys. The show starts at 7 pm and tickets are on sale now.
On the road
Working and doing her own promotion for her latest release seems to have taken on its own journey, says Wilde. The recording has been highlighted as a Blues Breaker album on Elwood’s (Dan Akroyd) House of Blues Radio Hour, the award winning syndicated radio show run by Manila Productions in the USA.
“She has her own unique boogie woogie style, and a voice that may remind you of Janis Joplin. These are songs about the several sides of love, the good, the bad, the ugly. This one offers a combination of all three,” says HoB about That man drives me mad.
That cut has since been nominated as Blues Song of 2011 in the Independent Music Awards (Wilde was the only Canadian, and the only woman, in the category), and has gone out to over 20,000 digital jukeboxes across the USA, just in time for Voters Choice Award consideration (mid-July).
The CD has been ranked as high as #7 on the top 50 Blues Albums on the Roots Music Report for radio plays on roots and blues stations, and has remained on the charts on THEX and LURADIO for months.
On top of these successes, Wilde has been receiving radio play worldwide (Italy, Germany, Spain, France, and the UK), as well as across the US and Canada. She is currently working on her fourth CD, has received a fourth OAC songwriting grant, and has signed a licensing agreement with a film and TV placement company out of New Jersey which aims hopes to place a few of her songs on the award winning show Damages, which stars Glenn Close.
Sunday says: “The Toronto audience was really encouraging; they were all strangers to me, so when I saw them bouncing in their seats, I knew I was doing something right!” She not only played, but also had a chance to do a few radio interviews.
“I really had no idea what was going to happen when I got to the city; I had no real expectations of anything, just looking forward to the whole experience of it all,” she said. “You have to be in the city, play a few places, and then all of a sudden the domino affect happens, and people invite you out to sing a few tunes, and then there you are, doing your thing, in Toronto.”
She is really not leaving Toronto altogether, though: the Toronto Blues Society Newsletter has promised a review of What man!? Oh THAT man!!, which would introduce her to blues lovers all over Canada.
“I’ve been compared to Tom Waits, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith and Janis Joplin… but I really prefer to compare myself only to myself, ‘cause that’s the only way my voice and words will come through,” says Wilde. “I am not all those other people; I have my own pain to deal with.”
Sunday has accomplished a lot in a very short time, including teaching herself the piano over the past three years. Being in a small town (Atikokan, population 3,000) has not stopped her from pushing ahead. The internet has enabled her to reach a worldwide audience, and more things will be coming as she is currently in negotiations with a blues label out of Chicago, which is “very exciting for a wee thing from a wee town in the wilds.”
From the Editor’s Desk
Mike McKinnon
February 2007
Black Pearl Blues
I caught Ange Sponchia (a.k.a. Sunday Wilde) and Reno Jack (J. R. Frattura) at the Arts Centre’s coffee house a few weeks ago, and their brief show for the OAC luncheon a week earlier, and was just simply blown away.
Jack, a stage veteran (Herald Nix, Cadillac Bill and the Creeping Bent, The Handsome Neds, The Tom Waits Appreciation Congregation, J. P. Wasson Band, High Lonesome), made his name playing the stand-up bass, but the man certainly knows his way around the guitar, and his growly vocals are perfect for the blues.
Sponchia is a newcomer to performance, and is a thrilling singer. She ‘sings from her toes,’ putting it all out there on the line. It’s almost a shame to put a microphone in front of her – the raw power of her voice and delivery is best appreciated live, and right in front of you. Her voice is one made for the blues. She brings a dark power reminiscent of Janis Joplin and Billie Holliday, and a flowing, spontaneous musical inventiveness that harkens back to Ella Fitzgerald.
Together these two have something special going on: vocally, they complement one another perfectly, and the interplay of their voices gives all the old standards a whole new feel.
They did a version of St. James Infirmary that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. They took House of the Rising Sun back to its roots. That was a treat – I grew up loving the Animals’ and Frijid Pink’s hard rock versions of the song. (As I get little older, the more traditional versions have a growing appeal….)
It’s not all heavy and dark when they take the stage, either. Their Love Contest is a hoot. (Jack showed his versatility here; for the OAC he accompanied this on the guitar, while at the coffee house, he used the big bass.)
They’ve cut a CD (at the Arts Centre, too!), Black Pearls of Wisdom, that features their renditions of several standards (Rising Sun, Sam Cooke’s Rome wasn’t built in a day, St. James Infirmary, Gershwin’s Summertime, among others), as well as a half dozen original compositions. These latter works showcase their vocal dexterity, and the surprising range of feeling they bring to the blues style.
You can check out their work at their pages at MySpace or GarageBand, where they’ve won ‘track of the day’ a couple of times in the blues category.
…in the meantime enjoy their CD. [Also available from the MySpace page.]
2007: From her MySpace Site:
Sunday Wilde
“The only way to describe you.........Janis Joplin getting beaten up by Tom Waits at an Ella Fitzgerald concert” Bar Sue, Calgary AL
In Sunday’s debut recording, Black Pearls of Wisdom, she joins veteran Toronto rockabilly bassist Reno Jack embarking upon a musical journey entwined with northern wilds vocalist and lyricist Sunday wilde, producing a frank collection of songs that illuminate love tormented themes flavoured with awe-insprired angst.
Sunday Wilde comes from the wilds of the north and has been performing acapala jazz gospel blues for the past few years. She is an intense performer. Sunday sings from the bottom of her toes to the top of her head. With nothing more than raw vocals and a stand up bass, her Beat ‘n Roots performance takes you to the very basics of blues, jazz and gospel. Her original songs explore subjects of love, addiction and the torment of social and family dysfunction. Sunday writes from the heart and draws from her personal experiences and observations. As a duo with Reno jack she has shared the stage with such great musicians as Ronnie Hayward (Rockabilly Hall of Famer Calgary), Fathead (Toronto), Nick Moss and the Flip Flops (Chicago), D-Rangers (Winnipeg), Little Miss Higgins (Sask), WashBoard Chaz Trio (New Orleans) and more. They have just finished a successful tour of the western plains in the summer of 2007 that included the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival, The Trout Forest Festival and other engagements across Canada from intimate house concerts to nightclubs. Sunday wilde has been perfoming jazz gospel and blues for the past few years. She’s a songwriter and comes from a musical family of recording artists. She has graced the stage at Magnus Theatre caberets, and is a regular performer in Northern Ontario at various coffee houses.
She brings unique styles together that blend a variety of influences such as Bessie Smith, Big Bill Broonzy, Johnny Cash and Ruth Brown.
On her debut recording with Reno jack she has a unique expression exploring themes of grief, love, ectasy, torment, addiction and perceptions of the world.
“She performs traditional and original music. I have heard the music and I am impressed. I am a huge supporter of original music. As we all should be.” Molly Johnson
Articles reprinted with permission.
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