Thunder Bay blues musician Sunday Wilde is taking a pretty low-key approach to her new album.

Peace in Trouble, which is due out later this month, is completely guitar and drum-free, Wilde said. But while the sound may be somewhat quieter, the Canadian blues star power Wilde has backing her up certainly isn't.

"It's very simple and you know, I'm really happy with it," Wilde said about the album. "The songs have a variety of meanings about friends, some about me as an older lady giving advice to a younger woman, trouble which we're all dealing with right now."

Wilde teamed with Canadian blues legend Harpdog Brown for Peace in Trouble.

"We're a blues family in Canada, right?" Wilde said, adding she and Brown would connect when the latter was travelling through Thunder Bay in the past.

"I try to go to his shows," she said. "The last time he was traveling through, was just when the pandemic was starting."

Wilde offered Brown a place to stay, which he initially declined due to his touring schedule. 

"And then he called and said, 'hey, can I take you up on that offer?'" Wilde said. "Because things are starting to close up. So we became friends."

This was about a year ago, and the two have kept in touch since. And then Wilde started contemplating a new album.

"I reached out to him and said, 'you want to play on a song?'" Wilde said. "And he said, sure, he would love to do that and to send him a couple songs to listen to."

"Then he decided to record on five."

Wilde said she spend evenings and weekends writing the songs for Peace in Trouble, which is her ninth album. In addition to Brown, the album features Wilde on vocals and piano, Mike Carson on upright bass, Mac Givens on clarinet and Lex Riley on trombone.

Greg Schultz engineered the album, while the cover design artwork was created by Joel Astley.

The process of recording at a distance — necessitated by the pandemic — wasn't new to Wilde. But still, it's a unique way to record an album, she said.

"When you're in a room with the bandmates right there, it's a different experience, right?" Wilde said. "You can all be excited together as a group. You can do it again if you're not happy with it."

In the case of Peace in Trouble, however, Wilde would send Brown some tracks to listen to and he decided which ones he wanted to add onto; an engineer in Edmonton, where Brown lives, would help with his end of things.

Then, it was all sent back to Schultz to mix together, along with the pieces from the other players, Wilde said.

"It was quite an interesting experience, but I have done that before," she said. "I have lived in Atikokan before … so I'm used to that experience of recording a few tracks and then getting a guitar player down in Oregon or Minnesota to send in pieces."

"It's like layering," Wilde said. "It was fun and hopefully some people will like a song or two from an album."

Peace in Trouble will be released on March 14. Preorders are up on iTunes, BandCamp and Wilde's website.

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