America will soon lose one of its finest soul singers.

She's heading home - to a land where artists who dare express themselves outside the boundaries established by a totalitarian regime are castigated.

No, Gloria Estefan isn't heading back to Fidel Castro and Cuba.

Wynonna Judd, who kicked off this summer's concert series at the Memphis Botanic Garden with an incendiary performance of some of the best soul, rhythm and blues and yes, country music, Memphis has seen of late, is heading back to petulant Nashville.

Her show Saturday for more than 2,700 (more than half capacity), included some of the finest hits of her career, those she made after going solo.

The firebrand redhead pulled out every musical style she has for Memphis, beginning with a straight-ahead rocking version of Burnin' Love.

It doesn't take long at one of Wy's concerts to realize there was a moment in her life she decided she was mad as hell and wasn't going to take it anymore. Thereafter, she commenced recording a slew of defiant and/or freeing songs, such as the bellowing Rock Bottom, which she sang as the sun set and the citronella started wafting.

She also played the title track to her last album, "New Day Dawning," which was released three years ago. The title explains the song's sentiment quite clearly - she may have been expanding stylistically over the past decade, but her song titles are still country simple.

Wy manages dancing music alongside sentimental love songs like No One Else On Earth because of the sheer magnitude and dexterity of her voice, which is also the reason she can jump from style to style without coming off like she's pretending.

She moved from the karaoke favorite Old Enough to Know Better to a very funky What it Takes, reveling in the diversity of this, one of her last concerts before she begins a new tour to promote her all-country album due out in August.

She sang What the World Needs Now from the unnamed album, hitting streets early August, saying how nice it was to be back on country radio.

What a con. Aside from the underlying banjo licks, the song is a cool rock and roll tune dozens of rock bands should hope for.

(If it gets you on the radio, Wy, call it country. We won't tell.)

The audience that braved the threatening thunderclouds stood to applaud her efforts when she closed and again for encores, for which she reached into the style jar once more, this time for gospel.

With another nod to Elvis Presley, she sang How Great Thou Art a cappella with her R&B backup trio.

Then she closed with Testify to Love. It wasn't the nice, comfortable Southern gospel Nashville loves, but the scorching, soul-jumping gospel that would be sinful if it weren't about Jesus. That's the kind Memphis loves.

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