Through trials and tribulations that have shaped her life, Wynonna Judd talks candidly about her life, including horrific accidents and her latest album on her website, www.wynonna.com.
Wynonna Judd and her band the Big
Noise will be playing the Englewood Event Center in Englewood, FL, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 2,
as part of the Roots and Revival Tour, featuring nostalgia, comedy, soulful
music. After her tour will reach other areas of the country, proving that she is still a force to be reckoned with, even with a slight change in musical style.
“My roots are firmly planted in
country,” said Judd, “but I was given wings, and I’m grateful that my fans have
allowed me to sing the music that I love.”
Wynonna & The
Big Noise, led by husband/drummer/producer, Cactus Moser, who had to have his
leg amputated after an accident only a couple months after marrying Judd,
released their debut full-length album last February on Curb Records. Judd
described the new sound as “vintage yet modern” and a “return to the well,” a
rootsy work encompassing country, Americana, blues, soul and rock.
When recording the new album, Judd
sang as the band played, giving the album a more organic feel, and the album
features a number of guests, including Jason Isbell, as well as Susan Tedeschi
and her husband Derek Trucks.
Judd has sold
over 30 million albums worldwide, being a five-time Grammy winner and New York
Times best-selling author. Judd received
more than 60 industry awards, with countless charting singles, including 20
number one hits, such as “Mama He’s Crazy,” “Why Not Me,” and “Grandpa, (Tell
Me ‘Bout The Good Ole Days).” She was
also a contestant on “Dancing With The Stars.”
Judd described the new album as being
a very personal journey, as it delves into the moments she has shared with her husband,
who she has known since she was 20-years-old.
“He took me down a path I’d not been down before. Now, I just want to interpret these words as
honestly and transparent as I can. I
think you hear that. There are moments
in the record that I cried, because I knew I was crying when I was singing it.”
Judd is not a stranger to sharing her
life’s story. “I wrote a book about how
to have everything and have nothing at all.
It propelled me to be on Oprah 18 times, more than any other person,
because I have a story. And when I tell
the story between the songs, I think people relate to me, because I was raised
in country music. I worked with all the
legends. We’re losing them, by the way.”
Judd faced a brush with death by
falling off a horse, resulting in surgery, and with her husband’s accident
resulting in the loss of his leg, it gave the couple a new perspective on
life. “We’ve turned our mess into a
message to tell other people, ‘don’t give up.’
They said he’d never play drums again.
Now, we have a new band and a new record, and he produced it – and he’s
playing better than ever. I think there
are things that happen to you that make you either better or bitter, and you
have to make a choice.”
The Kentucky native was heavily
influenced by blues and bluegrass. She
performed alongside her mother, as well as having a prolific solo career, but
now she is sharing the stage with her husband with an album that serves as a
release to her past.
“It’s being in a darkness that is so
dark that your soul cries out to get relief.
Because of where I’ve been, and the hell I’ve been through, and just the
primal, guttural cry with which I have shed many a tear over children, death,
divorce, being in the music business for 37 years as part of my journey. I think this record is my musical coming out
party, where I’m just letting everything come to the surface,” Judd said.
For more information on Wynonna Judd
and the Big Noise, visit www.wynonna.com, and for tour dates: http://www.wynonna.com/tour. For
other upcoming events at the Englewood Event Center: www.englewoodeventcenter.com.
Marisa Williams earned her Master's in Writing at the Johns Hopkins University and works as a professor in Florida. For more my Marisa, visit www.lulu.com/spotlight/thorisaz.