When Grammy award-winning country blues artist Wynonna Judd turned 50 years old in 2014, she said she began reorganizing her life on both a personal and professional level.
“I decided I wanted to not only get my groove back but figure out a way to do that the next 50 years and get away with it,” said Judd, who went solo in the 1990s after decades singing with her mom, Naomi Judd, with the group The Judds.
“I’m on a mission,” Wynonna Judd said.
Part of that mission is to produce a new album with her husband and drummer, Cactus Moser, and take some of the songs on tour.
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Titled “Wynonna & the Big Noise,” the namesake of her band, the album is different from what she’s done in the past, more personal and expressive. It’s a combination of modern and vintage that shows Judd’s vulnerable side and incorporates styles and sounds of the music she and Moser love, they said.
Wynonna & the Big Noise: Stories & Song comes to Genesee Theatre Jan. 30 just before the album gets released Feb. 12.
The band will tell tales about her career through music, featuring old songs as well as cuts from the new album. For example, the audience will hear works like “Ain’t No Thing,” a bluesy, contemporary-sounding, fun song with guitar riffs and edgy vocals. Judd takes her voice new places and allows herself to be vulnerable in the album, she said.
“We do it (the show and album) with an attitude of gratitude and a feeling of restoration,” Judd said.
The genesis of the album occurred when Judd and Moser began dating, she said. They knew each other for decades but didn’t connect as a romantic couple until recently. They married in 2012.
“We were so in love with so many different kinds of music,” Judd said. “We decided we love the same kinds of music. We’d listen to records, bands, and we just had such a good time.”
Moser said he and Judd grew up listening to and enjoying Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughan, both of whom Judd has met — she’s also sung with Raitt over the years.
“These people we really like,” Moser said. “And we said: let’s make music we really like,” without worrying “how will this song play on the radio.”
“As the process began, I talked about the days of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack guys — how everybody was together –— the singers and the band, and I started really getting involved with vintage equipment and old microphones and sounds.”
In the new album, he plays on a 1930s-era drum set and another member of the band plays on an upright bass from the 1930s, he said.
Moser said the album has bold new sounds, performed by a group of musicians “who resonate from a real deep place of music history.”
He and Judd wrote some of the song and hand-picked the others.
“The album is autobiographical,” Judd said. “We’re pretty open. I want to be an artist people trust.”
That means recognizing life’s good and bad times, which both of them have experienced. For example, two months after the couple was married, Moser was involved in a motorcycle accident requiring a leg amputation. Judd stayed by his side. Over the years, Judd has had some difficult times, learning her mother was ill and could no longer sing with her, then reuniting with her to sing later on in her career.
One of the new album’s songs, “Things That I Lean On,” reflects life’s joys and tragedies, said Moser. “It talks about everybody is going through something — a great part, a rough part. There’s something coming at you daily. It really speaks to that.” Indie country singer Jason Isbell joins the group on that track.
Another song shows the natural evolution of Judd’s life. It’s called “Every Ending (Is A New Beginning)” and was written by Judd, Moser, Doug Johnson and Billy Montana.
Moser also sings along with Judd on “You Make My Heart Beat Too Fast.”
Judd said she thinks sometimes her audience comes in with a preconceived idea of who she is and what kinds of music she sings, but they change their minds quickly, she said. She hopes the audience will see how fun she is, how much joy she has on stage. “It’s my hope people feel better after the concert than when they got there,” she said.
Moser added two things remain constant with Judd. “She’s an amazing singer and the audience gets to hear her doing great music.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
Wynonna & The Big Noise: Stories & Song
When: 8 p.m. Jan. 30
Where: Genesee Theatre, 203 N. Genesee St., Waukegan
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Tickets: $63-$93
Information: 847-782-2366; www.geneseetheatre.com