Wynonna Judd remembers exactly where she was when she heard that John Prine had died, of COVID-19, in early April.
“I was sitting in the kitchen,” she recalls in a press release, and she felt called to sing his song “Angel From Montgomery” that night. She was working on a new project with her husband, Cactus Moser, at the time, so they laid the iconic song down.
“I needed to honor how much John had meant to me,” Judd shares. “I learned that song when I was a teenager, and now, 40 years later, I’m still singing it, and hopefully passing it on to the next generation who will keep on singing it, too.”
“Angel From Montgomery” originally appeared on Prine’s self-titled 1971 debut — an album that also includes a rich list of Prine classics, from “Sam Stone” to “Donald and Lydia” — but it was Bonnie Raitt who took the song and made it a hit three years later. It remains among Prine’s best-known and -loved songs.
Judd’s version of ”Angel From Montgomery” is one of five covers on her forthcoming EP, Recollections. Due out on Oct. 30, the project also features Nina Simone’s “Feeling Good,” Slip Harpo’s “King Bee” and more. Each finds the singer — who first found fame as one-half of the Judds, a duo with her mother Naomi — letting her powerful voice loose on a classic track.
“I’ve learned a lot being at home these last few months,” Judd says. “When there’s no touring, no concerts, no band, no lights, no action, all that’s left is you and the song. All that’s left is your gift.”
Recollections is the singer’s first project since 2016’s Wynonna & the Big Noise. She signed with Anti- Records in early 2019, at the time sharing that she hoped to use her new record deal to “rediscover the reason I got into this business.”
“I think there was a time in my career where I felt like I was having to oil the machine and keep it cranking,” Judd says. “Now, I just want to really get away with as much as possible.”
LOOK: The Judds Through the Years