Spread the news: Wynonna isn't a country girl, she's a blueswoman. She may live and work in Nashville, but her musical compass points slightly southwest—toward Memphis, home of B.B. King.
On first listen, Tell Me Why may seem another bland crossover cocktail, that Nashville syrup of pop, rock and country. But there's an earthiness, a kick, to Wynonna's singing that gets more satisfying with each push of the play button. Arriving just 14 months after Wynonna's her surprisingly self-assured solo debut, Tell Me Why establishes her as one of the finer pop voices of the young decade. Part of the credit goes to producer Tony Brown, ex-gospel pianist and Elvis sideman, but mostly it's due to the fire inside the junior Judd.
Wynonna's voice has a lived-in womanliness beyond her 28 years. It's obvious in the knowing, salty way she sings, "We-e-ell..." kicking off the guitar solo in "Let's Make a Baby King." The fervor and style of that song and of "Father Sun" suggest that it Wynonna ever made an entire album of pop-gospel, she'd shake the pearly gales. The album's high point is "Just Like New," by old pro Jesse Winchester, an utterly fresh look at Elvis through his Cadillac; Wynonna's lazy drawl pulls you into the song's core of mystery. She signs off with her bluesiest number, sounding on "That Was Yesterday" as vibrantly sassy as—are you ready for this?—Dinah Washington. The tune, by the way, was cowritten by that well-known blues songwriter Naomi Judd. We-e-ell...a world with no surprises would be bland indeed. (Curb/MCA)
Enuff Znuff
These Chicago pretty boys churn out hard rock that could be called Wayne's World with brains. Sounds like an oxymoron. But as led by bassist Chip Znuff and vocalist Donnie Vie, the band whips through its criminally catchy scorchers in a way that makes girls shriek, their boyfriends pump fists and rock critics unleash the superlatives.
On their third album, Enuff Znuff tempers the arena-rock ballistics with glam harmonies and Top 40 flourishes, all of which help make them a less tongue-in-cheek Cheap Trick for the '90s. Like Cheap Trick, Enuff Znuff uses enough Beatles-esque hooks to fill a Yellow Submarine. But layered beneath every gleeful guitar filigree and breathy chorus is a compelling love and appreciation of rock and roll that has been missing from big-time bands for a long while. By skipping the spandex-warrior posturing and by combining garage-band heart with seasoned studio acumen, Enuff Znuff makes hard rock that dares to snarl and sigh at the same time. (Arista)
Arrested Development
In the beginning, MTV created Unplugged, a challenge to musicians to work without the safety net of amplification. But with the release of this album, the format threatens to become a mere marketing gimmick, more obvious than innovative. Arrested Development's Unplugged is just a hip, greatest-hits package, essentially a version of their Grammy-winning album of last year, sans digital samples and backing tracks.
Augmented by horns, additional singers and a band, AD attempts to prove that rap can exist without high tech. "People Everyday" and "Mr. Wendal" are significantly reworked, with the latter taking on a new solemnity befitting its compassionate message about the homeless. They make their point but so what? AD never relied on samples that much to begin with. So why bother recording them Unplugged? Nothing's to be gained other than selling more records with just one new song. Only the energy of Speech and his crew saves the disc from Cynical Product Hell. (Chrysalis/ERG)
Various
This historic two-CD compilation offers up a thick and juicy slice of Chicago blues in its post-WW II heyday. Founded in 1956 by Eli Toscano, a Chicago record-store owner, Cobra recorded the cream of the West Side blues electric guitarists: Otis Rush, Buddy Guy, Magic Sam. Their tantalizingly slow, gospel-tinged style—along with their gruff or wailing minor-key vocals and their rollicking jump number—put a V8 in the Delta blues and became Chicago signatures. Other Cobra artists here are pianist Sunnyland Slim and harmonica wiz Walter "Shakey" Horton.
Toscano's gambling debts forced Cobra to fold in 1959, and he died later that year. The catalog lay dormant until 1972, when it was bought by Stan Lewis, a Shreveport, La., producer and distributor. Although a few cuts have turned up on collector labels since then, this is the first time these vintage sides have been issued all at once. Savoring them is a potent pleasure. (Capricorn)
The Pursuit of Happiness
Before punk meant Mohawks and slam dancing, it stood for a kind of cheesy wiseacre lifestyle, sex-obsessed and harmlessly cranky. In that sense these guys are punks.
The Toronto quintet's third album is its best yet, power-pop at its punchiest. Credit goes partly to producer Ed Stasium (Ramones, Living Color, Smithereens), partly to lead singer, songwriter and adorable malcontent Moe Berg. He's the kid whose hormones overflow in the bump-and-grind rocker "Nobody But Me," listing till the ways he knows of satisfying his girlfriend. By the time he gets to the rowdy "Bored of You," he's decided that such sensitivity only ruins relationships. For Berg, the Pursuit of Happiness is not just a band name, it's a one-track way of life. (Mercury)
>Wynonna
FROM SOLO JITTERS TO DREAMS OF FARMING
"I FEEL REAL PLUGGKD IN, REAL grounded, even though life is totally chaotic," says Wynonna, now on the sunny side of two grueling years of transition. First came the yearlong 1991 Judds Farewell Tour marking the retirement of her mother, Naomi, now 47, due to chronic hepatitis. "It was like orchestrating someone's funeral," Wynonna says. "Every day we were saying goodbye. Then last year was Survival Year." Touring solo, "I'd wake up on the tour bus alone, thinking, 'What's gonna happen to me?' Here's why: My mother started this family business back in 1982, and she was the boss. We built up one of the best road crews in the history of country music, and she ran everything. How could I possibly live up to her standards? I worried more about stuff like, 'Are people gonna quit?' than about whether I was going to have a No. 1 hit. It's amazing how many decisions there are.
"When I was growing up, Mom gave me a real strong sense of where I came from. There are a lot of strong Judd women, all the way back to my great-great-grandmother. My mom's writing her autobiography now, and it's helping me understand why I am the way I am. And you know what I am? A farmer. I just bought a farm, and that's really my goal someday, to take six months off and just go plant."
Naomi's health, Wynonna says, "is stabilized. We see lots of each other. She leaves funny messages on my machine. She hums 'Jesus Loves Me' and hangs up. She can live a pretty normal life, but she has to really stay away from stress. Which helps me, you know, keep my nose clean."
- Contributors:
- Tony Scherman,
- Amy Linden,
- Lisa Shea,
- Craig Tomashoff.
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
