It was very important for me that she be the first guest - and it was very important to me - because I knew that she cared so much about the music and cared so much about Wynonna. But throughout the process, she was there. And we all started building this idea of the tour with a guest (each night) off of Brandi, and that’s how it started. From the very beginning, she felt very strongly that Wynonna should do the tour, and she was very vocal about that with all of us. She and I talked through a lot as we were talking through songs and making sure everyone was healthy and happy. Says Jason Owen, the head of Nashville media powerhouse Sandbox Entertainment and an exec producer on both projects: “I’m being honest when I say I could not have done this tour without her. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for CMT) Getty Images for CMTĬarlile, who has characterized herself as one of the Judds’ all-time megafans since childhood, was particularly instrumental in being a sort of spiritual cheerleader for Wynonna, before and during the tour.

MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE – NOVEMBER 03: (L-R) Brandi Carlile, Kelsea Ballerini, Ashley McBryde, Martina McBride, Wynonna Judd, Phillip Sweet, Kimberly Schlapman, Karen Fairchild and Jimi Westbrook of Little Big Town perform onstage for The Judds Love Is Alive The Final Concert hosted by CMT at Murphy Center at Middle Tennessee State University on Novemin Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

(Make that co-frontwomen and -frontmen in the case of the latter co-ed vocal quartet.) “I think that’s probably the preferred order,” Comeaux says, “because I think the story that the doc is telling of the whole year leads us to the final story we’re telling in the concert special, with the culmination in Murfreesboro.” That’s the Tennessee city where Judd and all the guest stars who appeared along last fall’s tour routing converged for a show that was meant to more or less recreate the Judds’ famous original farewell concert back in 1991, shot on the same stage.īoth projects will prove enticing not just to fans of the Judds but to followers of the performers who are seen joining Wynonna as co-frontwomen: Brandi Carlile, Kelsea Ballerini, Martina McBride, Ashley McBryde, Faith Hill and Little Big Town. No one will be punished for picking their own viewing order, but CMT’s Margaret Comeaux, one of the executive producers of the concert film, suggests starting with the doc and saving the live show for dessert. With the on-air premieres of the doc and concert special being spaced a few days apart, Judds fans don’t have to consume them both in one fell swoop, but the biggest devotees of the history-making mother/daughter duo may well make a “Girls Night Out” binge out of the two programs anyway.

The final gambit cover