MORRISTOWN Five-time Grammy award winner Wynonna Judd performs her classic country hits on Friday, July 20, 2012 at 8 p.m. at the Mayo Performing Arts Center. Tickets are$57 to $97.
Wynonna's career has always revolved around telling stories. Whether she's using herrich, commanding voice to sing one of her hits or sitting down for a bold,honest appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Wynonna always gets her point acrosswith unflinching honesty and wisdom gained over the course of her very public life.
In short, she's not one to shy away from speaking her mind, and that's what makesher latest ventures in the worlds of literature and television so intriguing.
A five-time Grammy winner, Wynonna is also a New York Times bestselling authorthanks to her candid 2005 memoir,"Coming Home to Myself." Now she expands into fictionwith her new book, "Restless Heart." Drawing on her nearly 30 yearsexperience as a country music megastar, Wynonna's debut novel tells the story of a young Kentucky native and aspiring country singer, Destiny Hart. The story unfolds asDestiny wins the Kentucky Idol talent competition and makes the move to Nashville,only to face rejection and a struggle to pay the bills. Destiny's big break finallycomes, and her dizzying rise to stardom leads her on a path of self-discovery, grappling with love, loss, success, and surrender. Overcoming obstacles is arecurring theme in Wynonna's work, and that triumphant outlook shows up on everypage of Restless Heart.
Of course, Wynonna's own journey as one half of legendary duo The Judds with hermother Naomi Judd provides one of the most fascinating stories in country musichistory. Rising to superstardom in the early 1980s on the strength of chart topperslike "Mama's He's Crazy," "Why Not Me" and "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good OldDays)," The Judds were unstoppable for the rest of the decade, picking up multipleGrammy, Country Music Academy and American Country Music Awards and selling more than 20 million albums along the way.
In 1991, after Naomi was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, Wynonna went on to launch herwildly successful solo career. She and Naomi have embarked on two more tours after Naomi's recovery, including their current outing, The Last Encore.
Never ones to hold back intheir quest for honesty, Wynonna and Naomi regularly shared their biggest strugglesand revelations with the public as guests on The Oprah Winfrey Show. In fact, TheJudds have made 17 appearances on the show in the past 25 years. So, when Oprahlaunched the Oprah Winfrey Network in 2011, it was only natural she turnedto one of music's most fascinating and iconic duos for some compelling programming.
The Judds is a new docu-series on OWN, granting fans unprecedented access into theirunique and powerful mother/daughter relationship in addition to their relationshipas performers and artistic collaborators.
In the midst of all these new projects, Wynonna is also recording her eighth studioalbum due out next year. It's just the latest in a string of hit albums thatstarted with her quintuple platinum 1992 solo debut, Wynonna. That set spawned fournumber one hits and was the bestselling country album ever by a female artist atthat time. In 1994, Wynonna received the coveted Top Female Vocalist of the Yeartrophy at the ACM Awards, and Rolling Stone called her "the greatest female countrysinger since Patsy Cline." Wynonna went on to sell more than 10 million albums andreach new creative heights with six chart toppers of her own.