Wynonna

Wynonna Judd achieved widespread acclaim and admiration as a leading female figure in country music while performing as half of the Judds. After launching her independent path in the opening years of the 1990s, she pursued an increasingly broad range of styles that often puzzled devoted country listeners and stations yet sustained a devoted base of supporters. Her individual releases sometimes adhered to the country-pop sound associated with the Judds or else explored roots rock, blues, gospel, adult contemporary pop, folk, and Southern R&B.

Born Christina Ciminella on May 30, 1964, in Ashland, Kentucky, Judd grew up while her mother Naomi, still using her birth name Diana at the time, remained in high school; her biological father left the household almost at once, after which Naomi wed Michael Ciminella to form a conventional family. The household relocated to Los Angeles in 1968, yet the marriage ended in 1972. Over the following years Wynonna experienced periods on welfare before returning to Kentucky alongside her mother in 1976. They resided in a mountain dwelling without telephone or television service, where country broadcasts on the radio supplied primary entertainment. After receiving a guitar as a gift, Wynonna taught herself to play and soon joined her mother in close-harmony singing. Her vocal ability became evident by her teenage years, prompting the family’s 1979 move to Nashville in pursuit of a music career. Naomi and Wynonna secured a contract with RCA in 1983 and, through the rest of the decade, ranked as the biggest-selling duo in country music history—a distinction later assumed by Brooks & Dunn. Less driven by career ambitions than her mother, who effectively managed the act, Wynonna grew increasingly rebellious until Naomi received a hepatitis C diagnosis in 1990 and concluded her performing career following a farewell tour in 1991.

Initially uncertain about continuing without her mother, Wynonna soon chose a solo route and signed with MCA. Her debut solo album, Wynonna, appeared in 1992 and immediately succeeded, exceeding three million copies sold while topping the country charts, reaching the pop Top Five, and drawing favorable notices. The first three solo singles—“She Is His Only Need,” “I Saw the Light,” and “No One Else on Earth”—each reached number one on the country charts, and “My Strongest Weakness” also entered the Top Five. The 1993 follow-up Tell Me Why likewise achieved platinum status and country number one with a pop Top Five peak, yielding five additional Top Ten entries: the title track, “Only Love,” “Girls with Guitars,” “Rock Bottom,” and “Is It Over Yet.” Her progress encountered a setback, however, when reports surfaced that, like her mother earlier, she had become pregnant outside marriage. Tabloids seized on the story, and more traditional country audiences criticized her as an unsuitable role model.

Wynonna eventually married her son’s father, Nashville businessman Arch Kelly, in 1996, the same year she issued her third album, Revelations. The more reflective project delivered a number one single with “To Be Loved by You” and attained platinum certification even though it produced no further Top Ten hits. For the successor, 1997’s The Other Side, she shifted toward a blues-inflected, rock-oriented roots blend that frequently evoked Bonnie Raitt. The album reached the country Top Five yet became her first solo release to fall short of one million copies sold, leading her to depart MCA for Mercury. By then she had welcomed a second child, though her marriage dissolved in 1998. Rather than issue another solo album immediately, she rejoined her mother for a New Year’s Eve concert welcoming the year 2000. They mounted a complete tour together in 2000, and four new Judds recordings appeared on a limited bonus disc accompanying Wynonna’s Mercury debut, New Day Dawning. Her most varied project to that point and her first effort as co-producer, the album included interpretations of Joni Mitchell and the Fabulous Thunderbirds; although it generated no major singles, it again entered the country Top Five.

She returned to country-oriented material with 2003’s What the World Needs Now Is Love, which reunited her with her mother on the track “Flies on the Butter.” The live recording Her Story: Scenes from a Lifetime, issued in both DVD and CD formats, followed in 2005, peaking at number two on the Top Country Albums chart. Just in time for the holiday season the next year, she released the seasonal collection Classic Christmas. An album of covers and standards titled Sing: Chapter 1 appeared in 2009.

The Judds reunited in 2010, issuing the single “I Will Stand by You” on October 4. After a farewell tour the following year, Wynonna’s first novel, Restless Heart, was published by NAL. A six-episode reality series with her mother, The Judds, premiered on the Oprah Winfrey Network in April, followed in May by the single “Love It Out Loud.” In November she and her new band, Wynonna & the Big Noise—featuring her husband, drummer and producer Cactus Moser—made their initial concert appearance in Nashville. The band’s first single, “Something You Can’t Live Without,” arrived in 2013, marking her first new solo material in four years. That same year she contributed guest performances to albums by Willie Nelson and Colt Ford and competed on Dancing with the Stars. After another extended interval without new releases, the full-length Wynonna & the Big Noise, produced by Moser, appeared in February 2016 on Curb Records.