A bass drum hammers its way onto the bridge in waltz time as a voice gathers force, becoming so guttural it transforms into a wail beyond song. “How could a headstone on Pine Hill know you / better than me?” it moans, punching out each word. “Was I ever really your daughter?”
Pain threaded with joy is the sound of survival. On The Hard Truth, Wynonna isn’t letting go of either one, carrying everything she’s endured and reinventing herself as an artist.
This ten-track tribute to deep sorrow and dogged persistence strips away layer after layer of the lush production that defined Wynonna’s previous recordings, delivering in its place her most personal and powerful work yet. ANTI- is proud to continue its tradition of embracing American legends and giving them a platform to reach new heights.
The Hard Truth has a major contributor in the form of producer Cactus Moser, Wynonna’s partner in music and life. The two first became friends after meeting on her 1990 tour, when Moser’s band Highway 101 opened for her. Recalling that tour, he says, “At sound check, I’d watch her singing those songs more freely and less like the records, and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’”
Wynonna and Moser shared songwriting duties on The Hard Truth, and the resulting tracks were recorded to capture and compliment the raw power he’d witnessed decades ago. What they’ve created together is an unvarnished elegy to the dead and the missing, an album that pays tribute to choosing love in the face of suffering. Through instrumentation and arrangements unlike any record in Wynonna’s four-decade career, The Hard Truth rolls in like a night train hitting listeners on the blind side.
