Forty-eight hours after she performed Sunday with Joni Mitchell at the Newport Folk Festival, Wynonna Judd couldn't quite wrap her mind around what she'd taken part in.
"I'm still like: What the heck just happened?" the veteran country star said Tuesday of Mitchell's first full public concert since she suffered a debilitating aneurysm in 2015. Unannounced in advance, the legendary singer-songwriter's return to the stage — in which Mitchell, who sang and played guitar, was accompanied by a cast of friends and admirers including Judd, Brandi Carlile, Marcus Mumford, Blake Mills, Allison Russell, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig of Lucius — went instantly viral online due in large part to a video shot by a fan that shows Mitchell singing her classic "Both Sides Now" as Judd, positioned right behind her, goes through what appears to be every conceivable emotion separating joy and pain.
"I know I was ugly-crying most of the time, and I'm not thrilled about that," Judd, 58, said with a laugh. "Who would be? But I feel like I was there to be a messenger of how precious life is because of my mother," she added of Naomi Judd, who died from suicide in April. "Joni was the soundtrack of my childhood — she's my hero — and Brandi invited me to come and be a witness to her incredible journey.
