'I can't believe she's not here': Wynonna Judd delivers triumphant night of music, memories, tears for mom Naomi on Judds' final tour

ASHWAUBENON - Anyone wondering how Wynonna Judd would find the voice and strength to carry on with The Judds: The Final Tour without mom Naomi needed to look only as far as the crowd in front of her.

Fans all but filled the Resch Center and wrapped their collective arms around Wynonna on Saturday night for the emotional and almost unimaginable undertaking of a daughter still grieving the loss of her mother taking the stage without her.

They drove 12 hours from Toronto, Canada, flew in from Arizona and wore their vintage Judds T-shirts to remind her just how strong the ties are to the duo that defined country music of the ‘80s and early ’90s. They got to their feet time and again to lift her up one powerful performance after another. They sang so sweetly back to her on “Grandpa (Tell Me ’Bout the Good Old Days)” that they brought her to tears near the end of a night that was a two-hour tour de force. The definition of a triumph.

“I can’t believe she’s not here, and I’m so glad that you are. Thank you,” Wynonna said earlier in the show.

She didn't realize it, but with those 15 words, she had just captured what every fan looking back at her was thinking.

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Saturday was the fourth stop on an 11-city tour that when announced in April was to be The Judds’ first visit to Green Bay in 12 years. Less than three weeks later, Naomi Judd died by suicide at age 76. It seemed inevitable the tour would be scrapped. Instead, at the public memorial for Naomi in May, Wynonna announced she would make good on the dates to honor her mother.

This is, after all, Wynonna Judd — one of her genre's strongest women and fiercest voices.

She recruited a rotating list of female friends to join her, with Martina McBride opening all the dates. Brandi Carlile did the honors on the tour’s first weekend. It was Ashley McBryde’s turn for the Resch Center stop, graciously breezing in and out whenever called upon. She was seamless on the signature Judds harmonies of “Love Is Alive” and added fuel to the fire for Wynonna’s own blistering “No One Else on Earth.”

The night began where The Judds did, with their first single in 1983. A closeup of a young Wynonna singing the opening lyrics of “Had a Dream (For the Heart)” filled the sprawling video screen before she picked up the vocal torch with a surprise entrance from a small stage in the back of the arena. Dripping in sparkling black and with a pillow of fog at her feet, the lone spotlight lit her long red hair like some kind of symbolic eternal flame.

(Wynonna clarified on social media that during the show the night before in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, she didn’t fall during her opening but rather there was a malfunction with the lift in the stage floor that left her singing on her knees. No such problems at the Resch.)

She made the long trek to the main stage by singing and dancing her way through the crowd, shaking hands with fans along the way. “Who’s idea was this?” she joked.

It wasn’t long before she had McBryde and McBride alongside her for “Girls Night Out,” setting the jubilant tone that dominated the night. The power trio returned again mid-concert to pay tribute to Loretta Lynn, the country music legend who died Tuesday at age 90 with “Coal Miner’s Daughter." You couldn't have hand-picked three better traditional country voices to sing it.

“We must pay tribute to the ones that came before us, and we mustn’t forget where we come from in country music," Wynonna said.

McBride, who continued her streak of warm, charming performances at the Resch Center, also honored Lynn during her 50-minute opening set with “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man).”

Wynonna proved she has both the pipes and the presence to do The Judds justice. Even with no Naomi smiling sweetly, twirling in brightly colored dresses or dispensing charming Mom-isms, it never felt like Wynonna was flying solo —  especially not when she soared on "Cry Myself to Sleep" or a bluesy take on Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is."

Her husband, Cactus Moser, stepped out from behind the drums and leaned in to do harmonies with her on “Young Love" as the two affectionately kidded around and smooched.

McBryde was always at the ready to join in but never overshadow.

Even when Wynonna was alone on stage with just an acoustic guitar for “Mama He’s Crazy,” and the Naomi void felt perhaps the most sizable it did all night, the crowd stepped in and became Wynonna’s choir.

Recognizing that there is no stand-in, no matter how talented, for The Judds’ “Love Can Build a Bridge,” Wynonna performed it onstage with her mother via video footage. It could have felt awkward or like a reach, but it was not. Like every detail of the concert, including the photo and video montages of The Judds, the pacing and the tone, it was just right.

Wynonna laid herself bare throughout the night, not just in her voice, but allowing the video screens to show every deep breath to hold her emotions together, every radiant smile, every look of relief, every Elvis-like snarl, every glance up to the heavens at a song’s end. It was riveting, sometimes heart-wrenching and a lesson in grace.

Only she knows what it was like to be on that stage under those circumstances, but Wynonna said recently in a "CBS Sunday Morning" interview, “I want to come out onstage and sing from my toenails a song that helps someone out in that audience. I'll be singing to help someone feel better. That's always in my spirit."

She can take comfort in knowing she did that in Green Bay. Her mama would’ve been proud.

The setlist

“Had a Dream (for the Heart)”

“Give a Little Love”

“Girls Night Out” (with Martina McBride and Ashley McBryde)

“Rockin’ With the Rhythm of the Rain” (with Ashley McBryde)

“Love Is Alive” (with Ashley McBryde)

“Tell Me Why”

“I Know Where I’m Going”

“Let Me Tell You About Love”

“Guardian Angel”

"Flies on the Butter (You Can't Go Home Again)"

“Young Love”

“Coal Miner’s Daughter” (with Martina McBride and Ashley McBryde)

“Rock Bottom”

“Cry Myself to Sleep”

“I Want to Know What Love Is”

“River of Time”

“Born to Be Blue” (with Ashley McBryde)

“Turn It Loose” (with Ashley McBryde)

“She Is His Only Need”

“I Saw the Light”

“No One Else on Earth” (with Ashley McBryde)

“Love Can Build a Bridge”

Encore

“Mama He’s Crazy”

“Grandpa (Tell Me ’Bout the Good Old Days)”

“Why Not Me” (with Ashley McBryde)

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Contact Kendra Meinert at 920-431-8347 or kmeinert@greenbay.gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KendraMeinert. 

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Wynonna delivers powerful show of Judds music, memories to honor Naomi