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Moreover,
Wynonna's
powerful, bluesy, often sexy lead vocals established her
as one of the finest female country singers of her era.
But even more important than their widely accessible
sound — or their considerable visual appeal — was their
sympathetic understanding of working-class and
small-town women, earned through a long, hard struggle
of their own.
Though their off-stage relationship was
often more contentious than it appeared, it took a
life-threatening illness to bring the Judds to a halt —
Naomi retired
from performing when she was diagnosed with hepatitis C
but beat the disease to watch
Wynonna enjoy an
acclaimed solo career.The Judds' story began in Ashland,
KY, where
Naomi was born
Diana Ellen Judd
on January 11, 1946. An honor roll student, she often
played piano in the Baptist church her family attended
but shocked the town by getting pregnant at age 17 by a
man who abandoned her immediately. Hoping to save face,
she married new sweetheart Michael Ciminella but missed
her high-school graduation, giving birth to
Wynonna (born
Christina Ciminella,
May 30, 1964); to make matters worse, her brother died
of cancer not long after, and her parents divorced. In
1968, the family moved to Los Angeles, and new daughter
Ashley (later,
of course, a successful movie star) was born not long
after. Unfortunately, the marriage broke apart in 1972,
and the family often survived on welfare while
Diana bounced
between jobs (waitressing, modeling, serving as
secretary for the pop-soul group
the 5th Dimension)
and endured an abusive rebound relationship. In 1976,
she moved the family back to Kentucky, where they lived
in a mountain home with no phone or TV. Music helped
pass the time, and
Wynonna began
playing the guitar and harmonizing with her mother, who
was in the meantime studying to become a nurse.
She renamed herself
Naomi and
brought the family back to the West Coast to finish her
nursing degree.
Wynonna's
singing talent was by then readily apparent, and in
1979, the Judds moved to Nashville in hopes of making it
in the music business.Naomi
and
Wynonna made
tapes of themselves on a cheap cassette recorder and
sometimes sang on
Ralph Emery's
local morning show. They caught their first big break
through
Naomi's nursing
job: one of her patients happened to be the daughter of
record producer
Brent Maher, and
that contact eventually led to an audition for RCA
executives in early 1983. The Judds were signed on the
spot and issued their debut single, "Had a Dream (For
the Heart)," late in the year. It reached the country
Top 20, and it was accompanied by a quickly assembled
mini-album,
The Judds.
Their second single, "Mama He's Crazy," was a breakout
hit that went all the way to number one and later won a
Grammy for Best Country Vocal by a Duo or Group. Their
first true full-length,
Why Not Me,
was released in 1984 and took its place as a classic of
modern country, establishing the Judds as spokeswomen
for a new generation of female country music fans. The
Grammy-winning title track, "Girls Night Out," and "Love
Is Alive" all went on to top the country charts, as did
the album, which also sold over a million copies.The
Judds were now full-fledged stars, and they spent the
rest of the '80s cranking out hit after hit. 1985's
exuberant
Rockin' With the Rhythm
spawned four number one singles in "Have Mercy,"
"Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days" (another
Grammy winner), "Rockin' With the Rhythm in the Rain,"
and "Cry Myself to Sleep." 1987's
Heartland
was widely viewed as more uneven than its predecessors
but kept their hit streak going strong with the
chart-toppers "I Know Where I'm Going," "Maybe Your
Baby's Got the Blues," and "Turn It Loose."
The ten-track
Greatest Hits
was released in 1988 and featured two new songs: "Give a
Little Love," which went to number two and won another
Grammy, and "Change of Heart," which hit number one.
1989's
River of Time
became the first Judds album not to top the country
charts since their debut mini-album but continued their
streak of consecutive million-sellers all the same.
"Young Love (Strong Love)" and "Let Me Tell You About
Love" both hit number one and would prove to be the last
Judds songs to do so.By this point in the Judds' career,
mother and daughter were clearly distinct personalities.
Naomi was the
extroverted stage presence, the sometime songwriter, the
ambitious businesswoman who steered the group's career
and pushed her daughter to keep realizing her talent.
Wynonna —
despite her quiet, reserved demeanor — was a
prodigiously talented vocal stylist who grew surer of
herself with every passing release and rebelled more and
more forcefully against her mother's direction. By the
time
Love Can Build a Bridge
was released in 1990, there was already speculation that
Wynonna was
ready to mount a solo career. Not long after the album
was released,
Naomi announced
that she had been diagnosed with hepatitis C, a chronic
and life-threatening illness that she had likely
contracted from a needle during her days as a nurse.
The constant touring had already begun to
take its toll on her health, and she elected to retire
from performing and recording, following one last
farewell tour in 1991.
Love Can Build a Bridge
produced several hits, including the Top Fivers "Born to
Be Blue" and the title track, and the tour was
unsurprisingly a blockbuster success.Wynonna
released her solo debut in 1992 and followed it with
several more successful albums over the course of the
'90s.
Naomi,
meanwhile, sought alternative medical treatment for the
disease that was expected to take her life in several
years. She published her autobiography, Love Can Build a
Bridge, in 1993; the book was later turned into a
TV-movie. By 1999,
Naomi's
hepatitis had somehow gone into remission, and she and
Wynonna reunited
for a gala New Year's Eve concert to ring in the new
millennium; it was later released as
The Judds Reunion Live.
A full-fledged reunion tour followed in 2000, and four
newly recorded Judds songs were issued exclusively on a
bonus disc included with
Wynonna's solo
album
New Day Dawning.
Following the tour,
Wynonna resumed
her solo career, while
Naomi made her
primary living as a motivational speaker. |
