Wynonna Judd has never been shy about sharing the ups and downs of her 30-plus-year career. “The truth sets you free,” the country singer laughs during a phone interview. “I’m feeling very light and free today. I don’t know how long that’s gonna last, but I’m going with it.”
Life is good for the country singer who has experienced both triumph and tragedy. She’s the proud mother of Elijah, 19, and Grace, 18. She’s found happiness with her third husband, producer and drummer Cactus Moser. Their marriage has continued to thrive after his journey back from a near-fatal accident.
“I’m in such a good place musically and personally,” she says. “I feel like I’ve crossed over into the promised land.”
Wynonna speaks in a husky voice filled with an infectious laugh. She’s an idiosyncratic force of nature who would talk all day if her publicist let her. She tells her stories in stream-of-consciousness torrents peppered with self-help bon mots (“What does a 50-year-old do? She becomes better or bitter”) and funny anecdotes (“I’ve always been around alpha females who are so powerful that you almost feel they can self-pollinate”).
The country singer arrived on the music scene in 1983 with her mother Naomi in the duo The Judds. The two women became a superstar act in country music. When Naomi retired in 1991 after her diagnosis with hepatitis C, Wynonna launched her own successful solo career. Today Naomi is cured of her condition and the two have occasionally worked together for reunion gigs and various other projects.
Wynonna, who goes by just her first name as a solo act, has been busy recording her eighth studio album, expected to be released this year. She’s also back on the road with a fresh attitude and a cozy down-home approach.
Her new tour “Wynonna and Friends: Stories & Song” comes to City Winery on Wednesday and to the Star Plaza Theatre in Merrillville, Ind., on Jan. 31. The country star will sing and perform a range of material and tell the personal stories behind many of her songs.
“(For instance) there’s the story behind what I was doing when (the Judds’ hit) ‘Mama He’s Crazy’ came out,” she says. “My mom and I had a big fight before we went out in front of thousands of people and she was trying to ground me. People love (the stories) because they see the people behind all the stuff. It’s important to mark this ‘herstory.’ It’s part of the tapestry; the thread runs in and out of all the memories, the hits and the travel.”
She says there’s a lot more blues and Appalachian influence in her stripped-down sound. “That’s where I started in this world — sitting on the back porch with a guitar and singing to the sky,” she says. “I’ve come full circle. This tour is a new attitude. It’s a new way of life. It’s new thinking. It’s time for a change and here it is.”
The Kentucky-born redhead with the powerhouse pipes will be backed by the Big Noise, her band that includes her husband on drums. The two first met in the 1980s when Moser and his former band, Highway 101, opened for the Judds on tour.
“I was smitten with Cactus,” she recalls of their early platonic relationship. “My mother kept me from him when we were on tour together for obvious reasons, like, ‘We don’t want Wynonna distracted because she has to do a show.'”
It was years before the two finally connected romantically. They married in June 2012. Two months later, their honeymoon phase ended horrifically on a South Dakota roadside when Moser cracked up in a catastrophic motorcycle accident. He lost his left leg and shattered his left hand.
Wynonna stood by her new husband and became his full-time caretaker during the grueling recovery and rehabilitation. She remembers standing in the shower with Moser, holding him up and literally being “his other half.”
“It brought me to a place of humility,” she says about that time. “I don’t think anything else ever really has besides my children. It was a very paradoxical time. I’ve never felt so vulnerable and yet so strong. It was a very life-changing experience physically, spiritually and mentally. I remember thinking, ‘It’s no longer about you. You’re now part of a marriage. A partnership.'”
The couple’s emotional journey to recovery is chronicled in the documentary “Wynonna & Cactus: The Road Back.” The video includes footage of Moser’s hard-fought battle to play the drums again and his triumphant return to touring with his wife.
“I’m really noticing a willingness to be vulnerable,” Wynonna says about her life today. “The book ‘Daring Greatly’ by Brene Brown helped me realize there’s a gift in allowing people to see the cracks in your armor.”
Wynonna credits Moser with encouraging her to get back to her musical roots on record and onstage.
“My dear beloved husband is responsible for my transition from ‘bigger is better’ to ‘real is the deal,'” she explains. “He toured with Mom and I in the ’80s. He’s been there throughout my career. We always ran into each other at every big event. He knows my resume. He said, ‘I want you to sing like I heard you onstage with your mom back in the 1980s. I remember this girl who was belting across the stage like she was a force to be reckoned with.'”
Wynonna’s new musical approach has her playing in a more open and raw style in a stripped-down format. It’s a change from the bigger stage production of the Judds and her own earlier solo career when she was known to ride a roaring Harley onstage. Wynonna says she’s jazzed about her and Moser’s approach for the “Stories & Song” tour.
“Once you can sit on a stool without all that production, the sky is the limit,” she says. “You don’t have to rely on all the dancers and the singers and the horn players and the 15 trucks sitting outside with all your stuff in it. I’m actually going to rely on my gifts and I’m actually going to tell a story. It’s about being personal.”
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When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Where: City Winery, 1200 W. Randolph St.
Tickets: $65-$75; 312-733-9463 or citywinery.com
When: 8 p.m. Jan. 31
Where: Star Plaza Theatre, 8001 Delaware Place, Merrillville, Ind.
Tickets: $48.75-$63.75; 800-745-3000 or starplazatheatre.com
