Wynonna Reveals Her Sentimental Side

*** WYNONNA: “The Other Side” Curb/Universal

When it comes to mixing toughness with tenderness, few figures in pop music can touch Wynonna. On her fourth solo album, the elder Judd daughter continues to showcase a voice and a sensibility as fiery as her red hair, growling and purring through rootsy reflections on love and loss with an ardor that makes many of her Nashville peers sound like shrinking violets.

But like the seemingly invincible good ole girl who winds up crying in her beer when it’s closing time, Judd also has a softer side, one that she reveals with sentimental abandon on ballads such as “Come Some Rainy Day,” a quietly glowing reflection on failed dreams, and “Why Now,” a deceptively gentle account of a woman’s struggle over whether to take an old lover back.

Those who prefer Wynonna when she’s rarin’ to go will savor the spare, bluesy “Don’t You Throw That Mojo on Me” and the honky-tonk-flavored “The Wyld Unknown,” one of several tracks with a pop-savvy rock ‘n’ roll edge. “I’m just a good-hearted, down-home country girl,” Wynonna insists on the latter song. Maybe, but as an expressive singer, she’s one multifaceted mama.

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