‘A Tribute to the Judds’ Honors the Duo’s Timeless Legacy: ‘It’s a Bittersweet Process,’ Says Wynonna

On March 2, 1983, a mother-daughter duo from Kentucky, Naomi and Wynonna Judd, auditioned for then-RCA Nashville label chief Joe Galante, in hopes of scoring a record deal. They had spent months working with producer-writer Brent Maher, finding and recording songs and crafting their twangy, harmony-driven sound.

“We had a three-song package that we auditioned for Joe and a few of his staff members,” Maher recalls to Billboard. “The three songs we played them were ‘Had a Dream (For the Heart),’ ‘Mama, He’s Crazy’ and ‘John Deere Tractor.’ When ‘John Deere’ finished, I mean to tell you, you could have heard a pin drop in that room. People were trying to start breathing again, because of that beautiful melodic structure and those harmonies.”

Galante ultimately signed The Judds to the RCA Nashville label roster, and the duo’s cover of the Elvis Presley tune “Had a Dream” became their debut single, reaching the top 20 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. The song’s follow-up, the tender “Mama, He’s Crazy,” became The Judds’ first No. 1 country hit, signaling the duo’s upward trajectory to stardom. In the five-year span between 1984-1989, The Judds earned 14 No. 1 Hot Country Songs hits, including “Young Love,” “Why Not Me” and “Turn It Loose.” They released six multi-platinum studio albums, were named the Country Music Association’s vocal duo or vocal group of the year seven times, won five Grammys and were ultimately inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2022. Maher produced all six of The Judds’ studio albums and worked with Wynonna on some of her solo projects.

Four decades after that fateful audition, and nearly 18 months after the death of The Judds’ matriarch Naomi in April 2022, nearly three dozen artists have come together for A Tribute to the Judds, out Oct. 27 on BMG, recognizing the duo’s significant influence by offering refreshed versions of 14 of the mother-daughter duo’s biggest hits.

Galante, Maher and A&R executive Renee Bell spearheaded the new project, which welcomes veterans of the format to today’s chart-toppers, including Reba McEntire, Blake Shelton, Dolly Parton, Lainey Wilson, Trisha Yearwood, LeAnn Rimes, Ashley McBryde, Cody Johnson, Jelly Roll, bluegrassers Trey Hensley, Rob Ickes and Molly Tuttle, Sonya Isaacs (of southern gospel group The Isaacs), and O.N.E the Duo and Wendy Moten. Wilson and Parton perform “Mama, He’s Crazy,” Rimes sings “Have Mercy,” and Johnson and Isaacs offer up “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Ole Days).”  McEntire, Jennifer Nettles, Carly Pearce and Gabby Barrett helm “Girls Night Out.”

“It’s a bittersweet process to be going through all of this and be seeing things like this happening in the tributes coming in, and it’s just life moving forward,” Wynonna tells Billboard of the project, recalling hearing Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani performing “Love Is Alive.”

“I immediately reached out to Blake — my brother that I never wanted,” Wynonna says with a hint of a grin in her voice. “I still do that song every night onstage. It’s still very much a part of my process and musical journey, so hearing it was strange and wonderful at the same time. It’s like somebody else wearing your clothes or something. When you do a song, you make it your own, you breathe it in. The fact that it is mom’s and my song, makes it interesting to listen to somebody else’s voice on it.”

A few weeks after Naomi’s passing, Bell lighted on the idea of making the tribute album. Maher recalls, “Renee said, ‘Naomi’s battle that she lost with mental illness, we cannot just let that fade away; there’s too much of it going on in the world and in our industry.’ She wanted to bring support and awareness to the issue.”

Toward that aim, the album will support National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI).

“I think we were all stunned when the revelation came out on what happened with Naomi,” Galante tells Billboard. “Being part of the [Country Music Association] board, we have been dealing with mental health in the music industry, as that has been on everybody’s mind since the pandemic. We are doing what we can to honor Naomi’s memory and honor this cause, to help people across the board.”

Maher tracked a number of the songs in the same Nashville studio where The Judds originally recorded many of their hits. Three of the musicians on the tribute album also played on The Judds’ records — drummer Eddie Bayers and pianist Bobby Ogdin and guitarist Don Potter.

“We didn’t want these songs to sound like karaoke tracks,” Maher says. “We wanted all the signature licks — the ‘Why Not Me’ lick or the ‘Grandpa’ lick, but we wanted every song to have a freshness and for the musicians to try new things.”

Wynonna Judd herself sings on one track, a bluesy collaboration with Trisha Yearwood on “Cry Myself to Sleep,” produced by Judd’s husband and bandmate Cactus Moser. Yearwood joined Judd at a studio on her Nashville-area farm, marking the first time Judd and Yearwood had recorded together.

“We sat on the back porch and talked and laughed about life, and then we’d get up and go record together,” Judd recalls. “Nowadays that just doesn’t happen, with all the technology and the way things are flown in and sent over email — so to have her in the studio standing next to me was an absolute joy. At some points, I caught myself listening to the playback and going, ‘Wait, is that me or is that her?”

O.N.E the Duo and Wendy Moten collaborate on The Judds’ debut single, “Had a Dream (For the Heart).”

“We met Wendy not too long after starting our journey as O.N.E the Duo and we are such big fans of her,” the duo’s Prana and Tekitha told Billboard in a statement. “When Brent told us we were gonna do the song with her, we were thrilled. And the fact that the song we did together was ‘Had a Dream,’ which was the Judds’ first single, felt like a really precious task was being handed to us.”

“I was overwhelmed,” Judd said of hearing the song. “Being really honest, my first knee-jerk reaction was ‘Oh my God, this is happening,’ just because of walking through this personal season of loss. That was our first song. I cried and I thought, ‘This is what they mean by a tribute, because we’re done. That chapter’s closed.’ So there was sadness, but also real joy in realizing that someone else is breathing new life into this music, so it is really cool. The most important thing on this project is honoring the legacy from mom and me.”

One of the more curious recordings on the project is a rendition of The Judds’ 1989 hit “Let Me Tell You About Love,” with vocals from Raul Malo, as well as the late rock ‘n roll architect Carl Perkins, who originally wrote the song with Paul Kennerley and Maher.

“This was when Paul was married to Emmylou [Harris], and we wrote this at their house. We had some high-quality microphones and all that, a little analog eight-track machine, so we made the demo there,” Maher says. “Carl played electric guitar and sang on the demo.”

For the updated version, Glen Wharf plays upright bass, Bayers plays drums over the top of the drum machine from the demo and the guitar is Perkins’ original from the demo. “The thing sounds like it was cut yesterday, but everything other than the bass and drums was done the day we wrote it.”

Ella Langley teams with Jamey Johnson on “Young Love.”

“There are only a handful of phone calls you can receive in your artist career that fill your soul with such fulfillment and honor,” Langley told Billboard in a statement. “To record ‘Young Love (Strong Love)’ alongside Jamey Johnson and to be included on this record is an honor of a lifetime.”

The album closes with Jelly Roll teaming with K. Michelle and the Fisk Jubilee Singers offering The Judds’ Grammy-winning, signature hit “Love Can Build a Bridge.” Maher recalls the recording session being one of the most special moments of the album-making process.

“We recorded his vocal on a Sunday afternoon,” Maher says. “He texted me and said, ‘I’m running about 20 minutes late,’ and when he got there, he said, ‘I’m not usually late, but I am so over the moon excited. My 13-year-old daughter just got baptized,’ and I said, ‘Well, I think we picked the right day for this song.’ His voice was so sincere, and that first verse and chorus is just him and a piano. It took my breath away. And he was just so excited to be performing with K. Michelle and The Fisk Jubilee Singers on the song.”

Looking ahead, Wynonna is currently embarking on her Back to Wy Tour, which focuses on her solo catalog of hits. She’s also working with Jelly Roll in the studio, and is looking into releasing a book, a new album and a cookbook.

“We’re just talking about ideas — I’m always cooking something, so 2024 will be one of my busiest years,” Wynonna says. “I was sitting in the car yesterday and Jelly Roll called and asked me to do something with him, so I’m going to his house to work on a song. Everywhere you go, there’s something there, and I’m still included. Right now, I’m just feeling real gratitude, that I’m still included.”

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