Wynonna Judd - (Full Show) - The Final Concert
November 03, 2022
The Murphy Center at MTSU
Murfreesboro, TN
01:09 - "Had A Dream" (For The Heart)
04:30 - "Girls Night Out"
08:25 - "Let Me Tell You About Love"
13:59 - "Love Is Alive"
18:15 - "Rockin' With The Rhythm Of The Rain"
23:36 - "Guardian Angels"
25:26 - "Flies On The Butter"
30:10 - "Young Love" (Strong Love)
35:18 - "Mama He's Crazy"
38:52 - "Why Not Me"
43:24 - "Born To Be Blue"
50:30 - "Turn It Loose"
55:18 - "Grandpa' (Tell Me 'Bout The Good Old Days)
59:46 - "River Of Time"
01:06:07 - "I Want To Know What Love Is"
01:14:49 - "Love Can Build A Bridge"
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The Judds: Love is Alive - The Final Concert documents Wynonna Judd’s November 3, 2022 performance at Middle Tennessee State University’s Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, TN. The concert special is loaded with meaning.
31 years ago, almost to the day, Wynonna and her late mother, Naomi, broke pay-per-view records with 1991’s “Farewell Concert,” hosted in exactly the same venue. The performance marked the end of the mother-daughter duo’s recording career.
2022 was marred by tragedy for the Judds and their fans. On April 30, 2022 - just one day before Wynonna and Naomi were set to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and only six months out from the kick off to their highly anticipated Final Tour, Naomi took her own life. Wynonna bravely forged on with the Final Tour, and several compassionate country music peers - including Martina McBride, Kelsea Ballerini, Little Big Town, Brandi Carlile, and Ashley McBryde - stepped up to fill the absence of Naomi.
All of this poignantly contextualizes The Judds: Love is Alive - The Final Concert. Although the special was filmed amidst the Final Tour dates, the production staged for The Final Concert television special looked (and felt) very different from the Final Tour performances with their mammoth video screens.
Not only does the stage design for The Final Concert bear a purposeful resemblance to the stage design used in the 1991 special; the production overall carries an air of starkness and simplicity that works to spotlight the quality of Naomi’s songwriting - three of her most touching compositions are included - and how The Judds’ classic repertoire will continue to live for long past their closure as a live act.
During a behind-the-scenes interview in the special, Wynonna pays homage to the legions of adoring fans gathered for the show.
“These fans are my family of choice. They’ve been with me for 39 years… and now they’re bringing their kids and their grandkids to the shows, and I literally see four generations sitting in the audience - going through their emotions and feelings because of the music,” she said. “They have their own stories.”
She then performs “Love is Alive.” The selection of this song, following that sound byte, moves me deeply.
When I spoke to Wynonna in the spring of 2022, she said that performing this song during the upcoming tour’s stop in her hometown of Ashland, KY would make her cry because most of her family elders have passed on since she recorded it.
The performance of the song documented for the special comes after losing her mother, and takes place while facing a sea of her “family of choice.” This family includes my godmother, who has been a fan since The Judds’ beginning, accompanied by somebody (yours truly) of the next generation - each of us having created our own stories associated with Wynonna.
“Love is Alive” is also significant because Wynonna performs it in the concert special with Little Big Town. This is the track, Wynonna told WOUB in February, that is a highlight to watch Little Big Town accompany her and “bring the house down” with.
“I’m standing there, watching them; I’m looking in from outside, and yet I’m part of the song, and it’s just otherworldly…. It’s otherworldly,” she said. “I feel suspended while I’m standing there singing. I feel like I levitate.”
As someone who attended the Murfreesboro show, my only complaint about the concert special is that it doesn’t feature all the songs that Wynonna and friends performed that night!
Likewise, simply basking in the presence of loved ones was the most fitting way to curtain The Judds’ marquee for the very last time. The Judds’ performing act has come to a terminal end; however, the songs and the memories associated with them will continue to live, and pass on to future generations. Wynonna and crew brilliantly structured The Judds’ final concert broadcast in a way that best enables the songs to endure far beyond the forever farewell.