This came out in 2000 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
In a world of cookie-cutter country cuties, brassy, big-red Judd daughter Wynonna has always stood out from the pack as a rebel who does things her own way.
Sadly, her new album New Day Dawning shows there’s a fine line between rebelling and shooting yourself in the foot. It’s one thing for Wynonna to augment her usual slate of honky-tonk rockers and overblown ballads with, say, the juke-joint jive of The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Tuff Enuff (complete with top T-Bird Kim Wilson on blues harp). But it’s a whole ‘nother thang for her to go messin’ with Aretha-style R&B (as she does on the Chain of Fools ripoff Chain Reaction) or to cover the likes of Joni Mitchell (a pointless retread of Help Me) and hip-hop diva Macy Gray (whose infinitely better version of I Can’t Wait to Meet You on her own album just shows how limited Judd’s range is). As Wynonna sings herself, “Who am I trying to fool?”
