Wednesday evening was mild for late June, with a clear blue sky, perfect for a night of live music at Wolf Trap with three incredible singers: Melissa Etheridge, Wynonna Judd, and area native Maggie Rose. They deliver and evening that was both thrilling, with Etheridge and Judd backed by high-octane bands, and tender, with touching lovely moments where the artists connected with the audience.
Judd emphasized her roots in country music on June 24, where’s she been a fixture on the scene since breaking out in the ’80s as one of half of the Judds, with her late mother Naomi, but her sound also rocks hard. (AllMusic lists Soft Rock as one of her styles, but I’d suggest that what I was hearing was more country/roots rock; she wielded an electric axe for much of her set.) While Etheridge is very much a rock & roll true believer in the heartland tradition (she is, after all, from Kansas), there are a lot of threads connecting two, both sonically and in shared themes, like empowering women. Opener Maggie Rose is a similarly eclectic artist who operates within a loose framework of roots music.
I’d never seen Judd before, and she blew me away, absolutely singing her ass off, beginning with a barn burner, “Turn It Loose.” For all of its spiritual message, “I Saw The Light” was just as vigorous. “Born to Be Blue” started off softer, but it quickly revved up and reached a crescendo. Wynonna mentioned that “She Is His Only Need” was her first No. 1 record, thanking her fans.
Watch the official lyric video for “I Saw The Light” by Wynonna on YouTube:
This October, Judd is releasing her first album in 10 years, The Hard Truth, which she describes as her most personal work yet. She said, “I have a story to tell,” alluding to the loss of her mother. “Kentucky Queen,” she said, “is all about me,” adding, “you gotta get it while you can, girls.” The set continued with “Rock Bottom,” “Grandpa (Tell Me ‘Bout the Good Old Days),” “Tell Me Why,” and a cover of Karla Bonoff’s “Cry Myself to Sleep,” during which she brought a young girl in the audience on stage. She rounded out her set with “Only Love,” “Girls Night Out,” “Rockin With the Rhythm of the Rain,” and “Why Not Me,” finishing with “No One Else on Earth.”
At — as she noted — 65, Melissa Etheridge’s trademark bluesy rasp has last none of its power, which was evident as soon as she started singing “Don’t You Want A Woman,” which appears on her latest album, this year’s Rise. Etheridge’s set touched on her biggest hits, ’90s anthems “Come to My Window,” “I’m The Only One,” and “If I Wanted To,” “Bring Me Some Water” and “Like the Way I Do” for her self-titled 1988 debut, and “I Want to Come Over.” She also found space for her new material, “To Be a Woman” and “Rise.”
The show reached an emotional climax with one of those new songs, “More Love.” Melissa talked about how, with kids, you want to teach them things, but they have to figure out a lot of it for themselves, which was certainly my experience. (I’m not sure how much my dad had to teach me; the weekend before last, I had to stop him from reading out a credit card number in public.) The one thing we all want, she said, is more love. As she sang, she came out into the audience, embracing her fans in a beautiful moment.
Watch an official performance video for “More Love” by Melissa Etheridge on YouTube:
Maggie Rose, who opened the show, grew up in this area, and several members of her family, including her 97-year-old grandfather, were in attendance. She dedicated “Gentle Man,” from her upcoming album, to her 14-month old son. It’s “a reminder to be more gentle to each other.” “Red Shoes” is another single from that album. Maggie got the evening started with “Fake Flowers,” and her set included a cover of Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me,” which she recorded as a duo with Vince Gill. Etheridge joined her to duet on “Poison the Well,” which she got a Grammy nomination for, and she finished up with “No One Gets Out Alive.”
Rose held her own singing with Etheridge; all three artists were in top form. You’d be hard-pressed to find any other evening of music with three such gifted, powerful vocalists.
