Back To Wy

“What kind of music do you usually have here?”
“Oh, we got both kinds. We got Country and Western.”
“Jake, are you sure this is the place?”
“Yeah. Sure. Sure. This is the place.” – The Blues Brothers, 1980.

Fully expecting a classic Wynonna country western repertoire, the multi-award winner waved at the audience as she took the stage at Disney Hall on October 5 with her band, The Big Noise, to the blasting accompaniment of a Rolling Stones song. It was just the start of a two-and-one-half-hour musical treat showcasing the artist’s mastery of additional genres of blues, soul, rock, and country.

Like so many artists with just a one-name recognition, Wynonna has become a performer of a certain age who just stands at the mike and claims the territory. Her tentative barefoot walk over acoustically and strategically placed Asian carpets, a gait perhaps due to frequently acknowledged nerves and health challenges, was no impediment to her flawlessly executed vocals, never missing a note or an air guitar movement in her Back to Wy concert featuring the songs of her first two early solo albums.

Songs were included from her 1992 release ‘Wynonna,’ which sold over five million units and garnered her a Grammy Awards nomination for ‘Best Female Country Vocal Performance,’ and from the equally important 1993 album release, ‘Tell Me Why.’ 

Like all good country storytellers and songwriters, she frequently talks with the audience, narrating her struggles in becoming a solo musician on her own in the 1990s and then again as a solo act after the tragic suicide of her mother and performing partner, Naomi Judd. She openly credits her husband, Scott “Cactus” Moser, a multi-hyphenated award-winning drummer, performer, producer, and artist in his own right, with helping her through the trauma.

“You know he’s not a musician,” she muses. “He’s a drummer,” describing the leader of The Big Noise Band, who at one point spontaneously hijacked his famous wife’s performance when he shouted “Go Dodgers” to the local crowd, each fan appropriately responding in unison with an extended eight-clap of “Let’s Go Dodgers.”

It’s also worth noting the names of the phenomenal band members, who deftly performed the scores of countless songs and genres in the diva’s repertoire (shoutout to superfan Loylene Northcutt for clarification): Cactus Moser: drums, mandolin, vocals; Justin Weaver: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, vocals; Aaron Currie: acoustic guitar, electric guitar; Dow Tomlin: Bass; Casey (K.C.) Martin: piano, keys, saxophone; Josh Shilling: piano, keys, saxophone; Josh Shilling: piano, keys, vocals; and Jay Carlile: vocals, harmonica, percussion. Of particular note was KC’s dual talent as a saxophone player in the crowd-pleasing blues number “That Was Yesterday,” a gritty rendition showcasing Wynonna’s gravelly and deep-throated lyrical blessing for a woman who was wronged.   

When a 10-year-old audience member presented her with flowers and a request to sing with her, “Grandpa, Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Ole Days,” Wynonna pivoted, agreeing to a fan experience meet and greet with him and his grandfather backstage after the performance. Needless to say, there was not a dry eye after that crowd-pleaser, sing-a-long classic.   

One of the most celebrated artists in country music history (both as a solo musician and as one half of The Judds) and who Rolling Stone Magazine once called “the greatest female country singer since Patsy Cline,” she still calls herself “a humble country girl.”

“I spent a lot of time in my bedroom, practicing guitar and playing since I was eight. We had no TV and no telephone so that I couldn’t call Child Services. That’s my version,” she laughs.

“But I fell in love with these women of music, Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell, Nancy Wilson, and I would pray for one of them to come pick me up in their tour bus. I’m very serious. I spent a lot of time just walking straight through the storm with my guitar in my hand, saying, someday, God, someday, I’m going to wake up in LA, and I’m going to be singing in the most beautiful music venue ever created. I’m just an ordinary woman that extraordinary things have happened to.”  

Part of a fifteen-performance concert tour, Wynonna ends her tour with three days in Las Vegas at the Venetian Theatre December 11, 13 and 14, 2024.