Wynonna refuses to complain. She knows she lives in uncertain times. She’s watched grumpy shoppers fighting over trinkets during Black Friday sales. Her husband recently lost a leg (and temporarily, the use of his hand) in a motorcycle accident.
Instead of singing a batch of slow, standard Christmas tunes, she opted for a different direction.
“I went and picked the most joyful, rocking Christmas songs I could find,” she says by phone during a recent interview.
That’s the backdrop for Wynonna’s Rockin’ Christmas, a touring production that will on Sunday visit the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville.
Wynonna hopes the upbeat production will serve as a healing, stress-free experience.
She’s recently watched the healing power of music first hand, after all.
She witnessed her husband and bandmate Michael “Cactus” Moser crash his motorcycle while she rode nearby before a concert in South Dakota this summer. An injury to his leg required it be amputated.
Damage to his hand required further surgeries. Wynonna resumed her touring schedule 12 days later, leaving Moser, who plays drums in her backing band, The Big Noise, at home to heal.
She returned home to find he’d set up a drum kit in a closet.
“He was determined to get back on the road with me,”she says.
He made his triumphant return to the band on Nov. 30, just in time for the start of the Christmas tour. Each evening, he’s received a standing ovation.
“Honestly, I think we’re supposed to be doing rehabilitation still. We’ve been documenting it. It’s been such an incredible story,” she says.
So has Wynonna’s. She joined forces with her mother, Naomi Judd, to form the music duo The Judds while Wynonna was still a teenager. The Judds collected several Academy of Country Music, Country Music Association and Grammy awards courtesy of hits such as “Mama He’s Crazy,” “Grandpa (Tell Me ’Bout the Good Old Days”) and “Love Can Build a Bridge.”
Wynonna pursued a solo career beginning in 1991, where she continued her success. Recording under the singular name Wynonna, she charted several No. 1 country hits, among them “I Saw The Light” and “No One Else on Earth.” She’ll likely offer a few examples of her solo country work during her Sunday night concert, but Wynonna promisesthe focus will be on Christmas music.
Even though Christmas music makes her nostalgic, Wynonna is also looking toward the future. She’s at work on her first new album since 2009’s “Sing: Chapter 1,” which followed her 2006 holiday collection, “A Classic Christmas.”
Tentatively scheduled for a summer 2013 release, theproject, which will be produced by her husband, is an album Wynonna says will put the “sissy boy” country artists on notice.
“People have to hear this (record),” she says. “‘No One Else on Earth’ is a lullaby compared to what I’m doing now. It’s a combination of so many things, because I’m so many things.”
Part of it, naturally, will be her renewed perspective on the blessings she’s found in life.
“I’m just glad to be anywhere,” she says.
Like her Christmas tour, the statement isn’t meant as a sobering or somber reminder.
There’s joy to share, and she plans to dish it out on Sunday.
“I’m going to be extra sassy,” she says.
Whats Up, Pages 13 on 12/14/2012