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"In a documentary first broadcast on Radio 2, Wynonna Judd explores the legacy of the group of 80s country artists known as the New Traditionalists, who breathed new life into country music at the time of its biggest artistic crisis. She examines their significance at the time , their subsequent influence ,and their continuing impact on 21st century Nashville.
At the start of the 1980s Country music credibility hit an all-time low, as John Travolta traded his white suit for a Stetson and brought the ‘Urban cowboy’ phenomenon to the dance floors of America. The 1980 film shot Country fashion into the mainstream, but led the music firmly away from its roots and into the world of pop crossover and easy listening. When, by the middle of the decade , the ‘Urban Cowboy’ boom went bust, New York Times proclaimed the death of country music and record sales plummeted. Several major artists like George Strait and Ricky Skaggs who had been flying the traditional country flag throughout the Urban Cowboy craze continued to have some commercial success, but the start of Country Music’s resurgence could be pinpointed to the release, in summer 1986, of ‘Storms of Life ‘, the debut album from a young singer from North Carolina, Randy Travis. With a rich pure baritone voice, simple emotional songs, and authentic country arrangements, his music conjured country music of decades past. He became hailed as the first of the ‘New Traditionalists’ a group which also included Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle - hardcore country artists who reworked and updated the classic sounds of honky tonk and traditional country, adding contemporary production touches to make it more commercially viable - a movement which paved the way for the New Country explosion of the early 90s.
Now, almost thirty years after the release of ‘Storms of life’, Wynonna Judd, who, as one half of The Judds, was herself part of the New Traditionalist movement, looks at the legacy of these artists, examining their significance at the time , their subsequent influence ,and their continuing impact on 21st century Nashville."