Concert review: The Judds farewell in Lexington an emotional, rocking girls’ night out

Wynonna Judd had already surprised the Rupp Arena crowd of 11,000 on Saturday evening by opening a tribute concert to the group that bears her name not on the main stage with the eight members of her band, but alone on a secondary platform at the other end of the venue’s floor. Then she got down to business with a 1998 Judds hit called “Give a Little Love,” a simultaneous kiss-off to a would-be suitor and grand vehicle for the blues and soul textures that have long distinguished her vocal charge.

“Drive you wild with a smile and then they’ll treat you cruel,” she sang. “Well, I ain’t gonna fall for that ‘cause Mama didn’t raise no fool.”

Make no mistake, there was a whole lot of Mama in this two-hour lovefest, but what resulted was something a bit unexpected. At least, I didn’t expect it.

The Rupp concert was an addendum to a reunion tour by the Kentucky-rooted mother/daughter duo The Judds whose neo-traditionalist sound ruled the country airwaves through much of the 1980s. The latest in a series of such treks was announced in April, although mother Naomi lost a long-running battle with mental illness and took her own life on April 30.

Daughter Wynonna announced in May she was honoring the tour dates with a series of fellow female artists as guests to help fill some of the void left by her mother’s absence. Rupp was added as a final date, although a Nov. 3 show in Murfreesboro, Tenn. will now conclude the run. A second set of tour dates has been announced for early 2023.

No matter which way you approached it, this was a homecoming concert with an unavoidably hefty amount of emotional baggage. But what was unexpected was how the evening wasn’t a two-hour sentimental overload. Its nods to Noami were tasteful, restrained and less frequent that one might imagine.

Still, they were vivid enough to make her very much part of the performance, whether it was through a video scrapbook of vintage family images shown on screens above the stage during “River of Time” or a perhaps inevitable montage that allowed the live Wynonna to sing along with a video performance of her mother during the set-closing “Love Can Build a Bridge.”

But this was very much a Wynonna show. Rough one-quarter of the evening was devoted to tunes and hits she chalked up during a solo career that commenced after The Judds’ initial split in 1991. Those selections, including the rock hard “Rock Bottom” and the smoldering blues-rock burner “No One Else on Earth,” purposely turned away from the rootsier feel of the Judds hits and gave the robust range of her vocals – not to mention her unapologetically aggressive stage persona – room or roam.

More than any of that, however, was the refreshing personnel design of this performance. This was the first Rupp concert in ages, country or otherwise, where all the featured acts were women. You had Wynonna the headliner and ringmaster. Then came the announced guests – namely, show opener Martina McBride and country celeb Faith Hill. There were also two notable party crashers: sister Ashley Judd and the astounding songsmith and vocalist Brandi Carlile.

Again, this was Wynonna’s show from top to bottom. The guests were seldom afforded extended turns in the spotlight. Sure, Hill added some crackle to the gentle “Love is Alive” and Carlile glided along with the rootsy flight of “Flies on the Butter (You Can’t Go Home Again).” But the sparks came mostly from their ensemble presence and the resulting and refreshing sense of onstage sisterhood. Hill and McBride assisted with the party feel of “Girls Night Out” while Carlile joined the three for the show-closing sing-along of “Why Not Me.”

Outside of that, the guests made a point of not being intrusive. Carlile, in fact, seemed content to sing harmony with the band’s two backup singers for much of the night.

The only one who notably raised the emotional temperament of the evening was sister Ashley. Though not known as a vocalist, she joined Wynonna for an a capella “Kentucky,” the Karl Davis song popularized in 1964 by The Osborne Brothers. It possessed a tentative but enormously honest feel that nicely fit the occasion. Ashley also urged anyone in the audience dealing with mental health issues to seek help. It was a message that was brief, heartfelt and altogether necessary.

How do you top such an extravaganza? How about having Rupp/Central Bank Center general manager Brian Sipe come onstage during the encore segment to announce The Judds are now the first people not associated with athletics to have a banner hanging in the arena. It was unveiled just as “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Old Days)” was about to commence.

It’s easy with an evening so keenly focused on all things Judd to overlook the arresting 50-minute opening set by McBride. At 56, the Kansas-born singer has lost little to none of her vocal stamina. She injected her more pop-informed hits (“Wild Angels,” “My Baby Loves Me”) with an assured, dynamic but ultimately tasteful bravado while the anthemic command of the set-closing “Independence Day” continued to define the rich, resourceful clarity of her singing.

Curiously, it was McBride that took time to honor another Kentucky country matriarch who took leave of us this year. Halfway through a set marked by a surefooted contemporary country sheen, McBride went hardcore honky tonk by way of a jubilant delivery of the 1966 Loretta Lynn knucklebuster “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man).”

On its own, McBride’s set possessed enough vocal authority and well-rounded performance prowess to stand as one of the finer country outings at Rupp this year. As a curtain raiser for, and eventual participant in, the Judds’ sisterhood nation, she was an invaluable presence.

It all added up to a rather epic girls’ night out.