The Judds have had a 26-year career, recording and touring both as an ensemble and individually. However, they last toured together for their Power To Change tour in 2000, and in the intervening decade, touring technology has changed significantly. For instance, witnessing the introduction of DMX-controlled media servers that turned LED from panel indicator lights into a display format and light source, and the evolution of video from simple image magnification to a creative graphics display platform. So when mother Naomi and daughter Wynonna came together again for their Last Encore tour, which did 18 shows over 24 days, some of the touring technologies that were presented were completely new to them, such as the LED wall that forms the backdrop of the show.
"They are touring veterans, but technology moves very quickly these days," said John Featherstone, principal and founder of Lightswitch, which designed a complex yet approachable lighting rig for the tour.
Adds Art Rich, production manager for Last Encore, "Wynonna had been doing solo shows in that time period, but lately she had not been taking out a huge production with her that was anything nearly as ambitious as this. She had FOH and a backline and everything else was local."
What was slated to be the Judds' final farewell tour (the duo did an earlier farewell tour in 1991 when Wynonna began her solo career) would certainly be worthy of the best that touring technology had to offer. But Featherstone and Rich, neither of whom had ever worked with either Judd on tour, realized early on that while the technology could create an awesome effect, it had to be completely supportive of the sensitivities of the artists, who were looking for a narrative, not a knockout.
"It slowed our thinking down a bit, and that was a good thing," says Featherstone in a clipped British accent. "They brought a fresh eye to the creative process of designing the lighting. We explained a lot more and validated what we were trying to do, to make it work for their narrative. It balanced things nicely, really, by pulling the process back a bit. For instance, one very welcome aspect was their willingness to turn things off. There are a number of songs where we don't use the LED wall at all, just some very minimal lighting. They were really exploring how the technology could work with what they were doing. It wasn't a case of, ‘It's there, so let's just use it.'"
The Big Rig
In fact, more than a few crew members found themselves wishing that the tour would go on longer than the announced 18 dates, just to keep the lights on, so to speak. The lighting includes 22 Martin MAC 2000 Wash XB Fixtures; 20 Martin MAC 2000 Wash Fixtures; 17 Martin MAC III Profiles; 14 High End Systems Cyberlight 2s; eight High End Systems Showguns; 14 Vari*Lite VL1000 Arc Fixtures; 12 GLP Volkslichts LED automated color wash fixtures; and 16 Clay Paky Alpha Spot 300s, all provided by Upstaging. These are densely arranged on Upstaging's three-crossbar HUD truss system that hovers over the main stage. Featherstone describes the fixture placement in musical terms.
"The upstage truss is populated by Cyber 2s, which are very punchy mirror-based (fixtures) and the echo the shape of the rear wall," he says. "The next cross truss downstage has the Martin MAC IIIs and MAC 2000 XB wash fixtures hanging vertically with a Showgun at each end. The Showguns are like the low end of the sound; the MAC 2000s and MAC IIIs are the midrange and the Cyberlights are the shimmery high end." Lightswitch's Dennis Connors programmed the Martin Maxxyz lighting control console, and cues ran into the thousands, says Featherstone.
The design came from the Judds' desire to have the stage seem intimate in even the largest venues. For that, Featherstone designed the rear LED wall in an arch rimmed by MAC III Profiles and Cyberlight 2s. The video wall, provided by Vision Visuals – industry veteran Scott Bishop's relatively new company's first tour project – has a calming effect against the moving light fixtures. "It frames the Judds and the band and gives them the ability to take command of the stage, which now appears much more manageable," Featherstone explains.
Looking to architecture for his next metaphor, he says the arched truss design takes some its inspiration from classic Victorian London railway stations, whose soaring curved iron made those massive structures appear inviting as the light poured in from outside. Rich offset the curved front of the main stage with a 20-foot thrust terminating in a 10-foot round front stage that Featherstone set apart by hanging, from a separate curved truss connected by cables to the main truss, four oversized custom-made LED Fresnels tightly focused on the mini-stage, imparting an equally vintage 1950s television soundstage look to the scene.
The arched LED wall was comprised of 224 Winvision 18 millimeter pixel pitch tiles, two 12-by-21-foot screens with Barco 12k projectors, two 66x sports lenses, four Sony D50 Cameras and Grass Valley Turbo iDDRs. The wall's content, loaded on to a Martin Maxedia V4 media server, was designed to subliminally support song vibe and lyrics and avoid quick cuts, relying on abstract images languorously moving by, as well as personal pictures of the Judds at various times in their lives and careers.
"It wasn't ADD-type programming." Rich quips. "We didn't project any stage images up there. It was all about supporting the music and reinforcing the fact that they want an intimate show that gives people a look into their lives. They were eager to embrace LED technology, but they didn't want it to eclipse the show."
There is one fairly literal moment, though, when the LED wall morphs into a projected triptych of stained glass church windows (taken from a photo of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.) for a rendition of "How Great Thou Art."
The tour started band rehearsals at Nashville's Soundcheck facility and put the rig together for the first time at Upstaging's facility for a week of programming. The ensemble did three days of production rehearsals at the Brown County Veterans Memorial arena in Green Bay, WI, conveniently adjacent to the tour's opening show at the Resch Center.
There were several dates on the tour where the lighting rig could not be used due to space considerations. The tour relied upon local production and Connors adapted the console programming accordingly. However, the elaborate lighting rig will get use long after its components are back on Upstaging's shelves. The Judds' eponymous reality show, which will be broadcast in six one-hour episodes on Oprah Winfrey's OWN network later this year, used the tour as a backdrop for many scenes.
"What I especially liked about this show was the give and take between the artists and [the technical crew]," says Featherstone. "The look of this show really was a collaboration. Everyone wished it could have gone on longer."
