Wynonna Recruits Jason Isbell for Self-Titled New Album
After a dozen full-length albums over the past 30-plus years — including five as one-half of mother-daughter duo the Judds and seven acclaimed solo LPs — Wynonna Judd will soon release her first-ever “band” album. Due February 12th, the self-titled Wynonna & The Big Noise brings a raw, unvarnished approach to the album’s dozen tracks, which run the gamut from gutsy blues to sweet, Seventies-inspired country-pop. While the LP is a natural for the wide-open Americana format, Wynonna’s legions of country fans will feel right at home with the singer’s first full-length album of original material since 2003’s What the World Needs Now Is Love.
With Wynonna’s powerful voice leading the charge, Wynonna & The Big Noise, available for preorder now, features a number of impressive guest stars, most notably Jason Isbell, who sings on the sparse and beautiful “Things That I Lean On.” Husband-and-wife guitarists Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi also appear on two separate tracks, while the Eagles’ Timothy B. Schmit contributes to “I Can See Everything,” which he wrote. In addition to Schmit’s song, Wynonna also cut material by Chris Stapleton, Travis Meadows, David Lee Murphy and Julie Miller.
Under the direction of Wynonna’s husband Cactus Moser, who produced the album, the recording sessions often went off without rehearsal — which the vocalist admits made her “crazy at first.” But having the Big Noise band play on every track was a way of bringing more energy and excitement to the sessions, something Moser believed studio musicians wouldn’t be able to capture.
“I have a newfound passion for what it is God gave me the gift to do and it’s all because of my husband,” Wynonna tells Rolling Stone Country. “He challenged me in a way that no one has ever — he stripped me of all my gimmicks and all my ‘go-to’s’… the ways I’ve done things in the past. He said, ‘This is a new day and a new way to be’ and I just got in the studio in front of that microphone and sang from my toenails. I let whatever came to me just fly.”
Wynonna & The Big Noise will be released February 12th on Curb Records. Here’s the track listing, along with special guests and songwriter credits:
1. “Ain’t No Thing” feat. Susan Tedeschi (John Scott Sherrill, Chris Stapleton)
2. “Cool Ya” (Lisa Carver, Andrew Ripp)
3. “Things I Lean On” feat. Jason Isbell (Travis Meadows, Daniel Sanders)
4. “You Make My Heart Beat Too Fast” feat. Cactus Moser (Julie Miller)
5. “Staying in Love” (Rapheal Saadiq)
6. “Keeps Me Alive” feat. Derek Trucks (Sarah Siskind)
7. “Jesus and a Jukebox” (Travis Meadows, Jeremy Spillman, David Tolliver)
8. “I Can See Everything” feat. Timothy B. Schmit (Timothy B. Schmit)
9. “Something You Can’t Live Without” (David Lee Murphy, Cactus Moser)
10. “You Are So Beautiful” (Ashley Warren, Cactus Moser)
11. “Every Ending (Is a New Beginning)” (Doug Johnson, Billy Montana, Wynonna, Cactus Moser)
12. “Choose to Believe” (Charlie White, Kevin Welch)