Wynonna announces The Hard Truth, first new album in a decade
Wynonna will release The Hard Truth on Friday, Oct. 2 on ANTI-. The 10-track set is her first project of new music in a decade.
It is also her first album of new songs since the death of her mother and musical partner, Naomi Judd, according to Billboard.
Wynonna, 62, built the album with her husband, Cactus Moser. Moser is a producer, musician and songwriter. The pair worked in a studio on their farm in the Franklin, Tennessee area.
The record includes some of Wynonna’s first-ever co-writing sessions. That is a change for a singer with a four-decade career as a country star, as described by The New York Times.
Naomi Judd died on April 30, 2022. She was 76. She died by suicide, one day before The Judds were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Wynonna was 19 when The Judds broke through in the 1980s. The duo earned 14 No. 1s on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart in the span of a decade and won five Grammy Awards.
Two songs point to the album’s personal scope. “Everything” features Patterson Hood of Drive-By Truckers. “Drive” centres on Wynonna driving to visit her daughter, Grace Kelley, during a jail sentence.
Kelley, 30, is serving a 15-month sentence in a Virginia jail after pleading guilty to a misdemeanour charge of driving with a suspended or revoked licence.
What makes this stand out is how directly the album addresses family. Wynonna told PEOPLE that The Hard Truth explores her complex relationship with her late mother. A new song was inspired by a 30-year family secret involving Naomi Judd, according to American Songwriter.
For fans, this means new music arrives alongside live dates. Her official site lists The Hard Truth as out Oct. 2, with pre-order and pre-save options available, and shows in Kentucky on Oct. 1, 2 and 3, followed by dates in New York, Texas, Oklahoma and beyond through November, plus a Country Music Cruise sailing from San Juan, Puerto Rico on Feb. 10, 2027, according to Wynonna.com.
