Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton

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Essential Albums

  • The Grass Is Blue
    The Grass Is Blue

    Looking back, the idea of Dolly Parton recording an unadulterated bluegrass album seems an obvious one. Still, it took decades for the country icon to get around to fully exploring the music of her native Appalachia on The Grass Is Blue (1999). This beautifully-rendered work both reaffirms Parton’s artistic standards and stretches the boundaries of bluegrass in creative ways. Connecting profoundly with the genre’s yearning sentiments, as well as its sly humor, she applies her voice to a diverse and well-chosen batch of songs. Reworking ‘70s pop/rock tunes like Billy Joel’s “Travellin’ Prayer” and Blackfoot’s “Train, Train” proves to be a boldly successful experiment — the latter particularly works as a galloping acoustic number. The folk standard “Silver Dagger” and Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” are equally impressive as haunting mood pieces. From the playful “Cash On The Barrelhead” to the wistful “I Wonder Where You Are Tonight,” Parton is in command (and from the sound of it, having serious fun) throughout. Sterling performances by Stan Bush, Jerry Douglas and similar top-flight pickers contribute to the album’s excellence. Some things are worth waiting for.

  • Trio (Remastered)
    Trio (Remastered)

    1987

  • Once Upon a Christmas
    Once Upon a Christmas

    1984

  • 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs
    9 to 5 and Odd Jobs

    1980

  • Here You Come Again
    Here You Come Again

    1977

  • Jolene (Bonus Track Version)
    Jolene (Bonus Track Version)

    “Jolene” certainly wasn’t country’s first cheating song, nor was it the first country song sung by a female artist to the fabled “other woman”: Loretta Lynn built her career on them (“Fist City,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”), and subsequent generations of artists—from Barbara Mandrell to Sugarland and, more recently, Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert—have continued to fuel the form. What made “Jolene” different then—and what remains haunting about it now—is Parton’s empathy: Instead of anger or bitterness, we hear about Jolene’s auburn hair and breath like spring; instead of seeing her as an adversary or abstraction, we see her as a human being with her own desires and complications. In “Jolene,” the other woman finally got a name. Most of the songs here remained anchored by the presence (or absence) of men: “Lonely Comin’ Down,” “When Someone Wants To Leave,” “Highlight of My Life,” and so on. But the purity of Parton’s delivery made even ordinary romance sound ethereal, almost timeless. Two years earlier, she’d written “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” a song that imagined her rural upbringing as a state of almost Edenic bliss. Between the joys and sorrows of Jolene’s love songs were persistent metaphors for nature: rivers of happiness, the union of sea and tide (“It Must Be You”), the freedom of butterflies perched on flower petals (“Early Morning Breeze”). The cumulative impression is that our earthly troubles—the other woman, the wayward men—will always exist. But shed yourself of your self-pity and woes, and you can see a state of nature open up where even heartache becomes beautiful and necessary. So if you haven’t heard “I Will Always Love You” in a while, you may be surprised to realize that it’s a breakup song. And if you want to know what kind of roll Dolly Parton was on in the mid-1970s, consider that she wrote it and “Jolene” on the same day.

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About Dolly Parton

Her multimedia dominance notwithstanding, Dolly Parton is first and foremost one of country music's most powerful singer/songwriters. Born to a poverty-stricken family in Tennessee in 1946, she started singing in church, was given a guitar at 8, and performed on regional radio programs as a kid. She moved to Nashville the day after her high school graduation in 1964 and quickly signed with Monument Records. Her first charting single, 1966's "Dumb Blonde," introduced a fun-loving but independent woman confident enough to tweak stereotypes and command her own destiny. In the late ’60s, Parton partnered with Porter Wagoner, enjoying huge success as a regular on his weekly TV show and through a long string of collaborative hits. But she released solo work all along, and after "Jolene"—with its striking minor-key mode and emotional intensity—became a crossover success in 1974, she set out on her own. In 1980, that steady uphill climb culminated in her first No. 1, blue-collar anthem "9 to 5.” She also co-starred in the comedy film of the same name, kicking off a long, successful career on screen that included hosting two variety shows. In 1983, Parton had the biggest smash of her career with "Islands in the Stream," an easy-going romantic duet with Kenny Rogers. Further collaborations—like her albums with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, and cameos on songs by Kesha and Miley Cyrus (her goddaughter)—expanded Parton’s legacy through the end of the 20th century and well into the 21st. Over time, she became involved in everything from the Dollywood theme park to a 9 to 5 Broadway musical. But Parton’s latter-day work, such as her series of stripped-down bluegrass albums, showed she was never less than completely committed to sharing her otherworldly, yet utterly down to earth, musical gift.

HOMETOWN
Locust Ridge, TN, United States
BORN
January 19, 1946

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