Recuperated Wynonna in great voice> Ex-Judd shows why she’s named top female vocalist

Wynonna came to town Thursday night itching to prove to a sellout audience at the Bangor Auditorium why she had been named Top Female Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music Tuesday.

And she proceeded to do just that. Showing no ill effects of the back injury that had sidelined her for two weeks, Wynonna pumped new life into all her hits as part of a dazzling one-hour, 25-minute show.

Wynonna appeared more confident as a performer than she had on her visit to Augusta last year. Awards and hit singles can do that.

Also, her show, featuring a six-member band, a three-member horn section and three backup vocalists, had become a finely honed machine. The group’s members were locked in step with Wynonna and the music, a precision operation.

Wynonna covered the gamut, from ballads like “She Was His Only Need” and “He Was My Strongest Weakness” to the gospel of “Leave with Jesus in the End” to the country of “Mama, He’s Crazy” to the rock of “Girls With Guitars.”

During the Judds’ song “Mama, He’s Crazy,” a male volunteer pulled from the audience butchered the lyrics and Wynonna stopped the show to give him a second chance. “That song will never be the same again,” she joked afterward.

She showed her blues chops on “That Was Yesterday,” which she sang to an audience member who had shouted “I love you” to her earlier in the set. She sang to him the tough-hearted song of a woman leaving a no-good man, while pulling off his cap, mussing his hair and sticking a rose between his teeth.

She closed her regular set with “A Little Bit of Love,” dancing with two men (one so-so, one flashy) and a little boy (energetic) from the audience, while spotlighting each of her band members. She encored with the crowd-pleasing “No One Else on Earth” and was gone.

Of her two opening acts, Wynonna said, “Life’s too short to work with ugly men.”

The evening’s second performer was Mark Chesnutt, who seemed like two different people during his 50-minute set. The first Mark Chesnutt, on stage for the initial half dozen songs, stood quite still, barely moving beyond a 2-foot circle.

But then Chesnutt sauntered about the stage during his extended solo guitar opening to “Sure is Monday.” From that point on, a more energetic, enthusiastic Chesnutt emerged, romping through “Postpone the Pain,” “Brother Jukebox” and “Bubba Shot the Jukebox.”

Opening act Tracy Byrd showed a lot of natural stage presence, trying to establish rapport with the whole audience by working his way all around the stage and the stair platform. He could dance when the song called for it, and could emote with the best of them on ballads such as “Keeper of the Star.”

Byrd relied largely on his upcoming second album during his 35-minute set, including the songs “Lifestyles of the Not So Rich and Famous,” “First Step is a Two-Step” and the title cut “No Ordinary Man.” From his debut album came “Holdin’ Heaven,” “Someone to Give My Love to” and “Why Don’t the Telephone Ring?”