No Dolly Parton thread? Well then -- classic or hyperclassic?

dolly parton though
is one of our very best
songwriters ever

talk about someone
who's still trying new stuff now
forty years later!

Hey now, that tribute album Kozelek coordinated gives me a new respect for the man.

I am listening to "The Bargain Store" right now and damn that's a good song.

..And she was great on Saturday Night Live - when she told folktales her mamma used to tell her and her siblings, about Hoss and Little Joe ..

There's a good ep in last year's album.

Knew about her back? I wanna know about her front! HI-YO!

Oh, does anybody know the best comp to get??????

Well, this one I just got is called Ultimate Dolly Parton, release date this year, hour long. But those who know her work better might suggest something else.

Remind me to have you killed.

Sally Timms does a nice version of "Down From Dover." When I saw her a few years ago, she prefaced it by recounting a fantasy of running off to be lovers with Dolly and resting her head on Dolly's breasts.

One of my friends has interviewed her several times for assorted publications. One time, while they were walking and chatting, she turned a corner ahead of him and rammed his elbow with her breasts. "Oops," she said, "I didn't leak on you, did I?"

And the log-cabin reproduction at Dollywood of her childhood home is affecting despite the cheesiness, because you stick your head in there and try to imagine a couple of grown-ups and 10 kids all running around and it really is kind of amazing and it does tell you something about her resilience and also her affection for the place.

"Coat of Many Colors" made me all misty-eyed when I was a kid. (er, still does, actually.)

Amazing film, stellar soundtrack!

hmmm. interesting. what would she leak I wonder?

Letterboxd just informed me that Straight Talk (1992) is now available to stream on Prime

xxp I Will Always Seat You

jolene jolene jolene jolene
i'm begging of you please take my seat

My wife wears the Dolly scent nearly every day, but apparently not the day she died...

Saw Kacey Musgraves in Boston last night. She dedicated "Rainbow" to Dolly then covered "Here You Come Again."

We drove out to Jones Beach to see Willie Nelson last night - surprisingly, no tribute to Dolly from Willie, but on the way there,

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU

and

JOLENE
JOLENE
JOLENE

flashed on the variable-message signs on the freeway.

Letterboxd just informed me that Straight Talk (1992) is now available to stream on Prime

Griffin Dunne posted a tribute that naturally mentioned this movie. Apparently he auditioned to be Dolly's love interest and she wanted him for the part, but the studio refused. She still had clout though so the compromise was to cast him, but in a different part (the manager).

xpost I saw a few of those flashing Jolene road signs when we were driving through upstate New York!

My favorite Horny Dolly song is “God Won’t Get You” aka I love God but I’m so horny HALP

“Torn between two lovers” on the jukebox/
I'm thinking how I could have wrote that song/
Wondering if God loves us when we're cheating/
Oh, but why he lets us feel things if it's wrong/
And I guess I should be singing "Rock of Ages"
"Amazing Grace" and some of those good songs/
But my cheating heart will tell on me tomorrow/
If you think that God won't get you, well you're wrong”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwOJMij0nf8

I think in a way it is easier to write about Dolly's good works and all the lives she changed through philanthropy or advocacy - all these objective proofs of how good she was - than to try to convey what her music meant to you or even what she meant to you as a person.

When I think of the power of Dolly Parton's singing, I think of a song that she didn't write: her cover of Woody Guthrie's "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)".

This is a song written by a white American man, sung by a white American woman, from the point of view of a Mexican migrant worker and the descendent of migrant workers. You can tell that Dolly Parton does not speak Spanish; she says "mes amigos" rather than "mis amigos," "Las Gatos" rather than "Los Gatos," "Jezus" rather than "Jesus." And yet it doesn't matter, because there is so much empathy and clarity of understanding in her voice that when she sings, "My father's own father, he waded that river" and "my brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees," you understand that this is true, it is true for her as she is singing and for us as we are listening, and that this is a song of real and heartfelt and angry grief that has found its purest possible form here.

Once, when I was fifteen, I wanted to play "Deportee" for a class presentation but I could only find a copy where it was sung by Judy Collins, and I realized as it was playing that the essence of the song had gone missing somehow. It didn't feel real anymore. It was earnest and well-meant, but it was no longer a song that would change hearts.

To me, that was the essence of Dolly Parton - that ability to make everything she touched real. She sang in a beautiful, golden voice, with a depth of expression and nuance unmatched by anyone but Bob Dylan, without any apparent effort or strain. I don't know where Dylan gets his knack for emotional shading, but I always had the sense that for Dolly, it came from the simplest and most obvious place: caring about people, wanting to understand them because she wanted to help. She wasn't sentimental, she didn't tug our heartstrings. She didn't have to. She just meant what she said, and we knew that she meant it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEPUxpR64YE

It’s funny you mention Bob - for me the comparison point was always Elvis. She just seemed to instinctively know when to quietly, almost shyly deliver a line or a verse to draw you in, confessionally sometimes, and when to take it up to the heavens & soar - and so many modular modes between, like a hundred micro adjustments- she could switch between them all in this way that just felt effortless, but also, very similar to Elvis for me because more often than not it really seemed less like being such a music ball-knower (which they both were) and more like they were receiving the transmission directly via whatever woo-woo spiritual channel you believe in.

But that’s also maybe a bit cornier sounding so idk

I think the other dimension to her recording of "Deportees" is her Appalachian roots. Different cultures and contexts, but I don't think it was hard for her to connect to a story of exploitation and being treated as less than human. I don't know Judy Collins' version, but as much as I love Judy I can imagine she'd be singing it from more of a distance.

Which is to say, I think the intuitive empathy she brought to her singing a.) is a huge part of what has drawn people to her for going on 60 years, b.) is the same empathy she brought to her philanthropy, and c.) all of it connects to where and when she came from, the people and place that formed her.

I love that she used the occasion of 9 to 5 to put out an album of (often) leftist songs about work, and went to #1 on the Country charts with it.

She just meant what she said, and we knew that she meant it.

So OTM.

But that’s also maybe a bit cornier sounding so idk

Like Elvis, Dolly didn't mind corn and sometimes was all the better for it.

this last week did make me think of a potential hard times/onion headline:

"huge dolly parton fan hears 4th dolly parton song"

Great post, Lily Dale

"huge dolly parton fan hears 4th dolly parton song"

lol

lol

Hahaha

If this doesn't show, it's "Purple Rain," from her Rockstar---killin' it at 77, in the way she follows Prince's delivery and just keeps building , in the way they both very eventually build on Zep-like power ballad dynamics---like in her live "Stairway," which btw doesn't have or need a Page-following (or other) guitar solo---but this is even better---and much more emotional; brace yourself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zluG5nyXoDI

Not meaning that she or Prince were actually dependent on any hypothetical Zep studies (not like White Stripes Jack). but just the way it all seems to mesh at times (I was listening to Zep long before I really heard much country).

And now she's even got me wanting to dig up my good Aerosmith LPs (you know, the ones from the 70s)(but don't worry, Tyler's not on here too much)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfY5Oc_rc9k

just one more---what Seger built on from Van Morrison, she totally takes over, born for it and vice-versa:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmN6KyY1804

(these lil feat.s are so not duets!)

Man, imagine a "Dolly Sings Little Feat" album...

Linda may have dated Lowell George, if I remember correctly from an intro she did before singing "Willin'"

https://www.facebook.com/reel/520239904508805/

Or even
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMP8JsV7wbg

https://www.dontrocktheinbox.com/dolly-parton-and-the-highwomen-at-newport-folk-an-excerpt-from-her-country/?ref=dont-rock-the-inbox-newsletter

Picking my way through parts of her catalogue that I didn't already know, and can recommend 1991's Eagle When She Flies. The title track has already been justifiably celebrated in this thread, but most of the album is strong. "Family" has been cited in some recent writing as the song that found her affirming the dignity of queer people in the early 80s. Really, the only thing I'm not crazy about is the Ricky Von Shelton duet, though that is almost certainly due to my distaste for a certain brand of male country vocal styles so ymmv.

*early 90s, that should read

So the guy who announced her death in the official video, the nephew? Well...

https://apnews.com/article/dolly-parton-estate-restraining-order-2df4e43253cda36a91ce9ec3cbc86211

“I’m going to ratf**k every entity I can possibly conjure,” he allegedly wrote in another email.

At least his genetics gave him the gift of turning a phrase.

was wondering

The choice in animal makes the phrase. If it had been, say, "pig," it wouldn't be intimidating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INbtrjGCqSc

This is terrific. It has also taught me that Dolly has a classic breakbeat no-one seems to have sampled - Gettin' Happy.

I Will Always Love You (To Stay 1000 Feet Away At All Times)

California has named today Dolly Parton day

Because 9/25, get it? Hee.

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/20/california-establishes-dolly-parton-day/

Anyway was talking with friends on the extent to which she was portraying a character, and realized that the world she came to prominence in (Waggoner's show, the Opry, etc.) Was an outgrowth of early 20th century entertainment packaging that has more in common with Vaudeville than the Newport Folk Festival.

To Dolly's first audiences, fake vs real would have had a very different set of assumptions than we have because entertainers were assumed to be an "act." Minnie Pearl made at least as much sense as, I dunno, James Taylor.

Paul Simon understood, he started with a stage name and matchy outfits.

Singer-songwriter authenticity is also a persona, and it is a relatively recent invention and to at least some extent you can blame the Beatles.

The Beatles never wore matchy outfits, of course.

I would blame the Dylan, or more accurately, the Dylan-influenced 70s singer-songwriters that didn't understand Dylan's whole personae was an act.

I mean the Beatles rather pointedly stopped wearing matchy outfits, is the thing

At what point did it become commonly understood (among music nerds anyway) that nothing Dylan says can be taken as the truth?

In 1917, when he delivered the Gettysburg Address.

Rainy Day Women #4 score & #20

"I’ve got my Bob Dylan mask on … I’m masquerading." - Bob Dylan, 1964.

He is the most entertaining liar of all time. Okay,
sorry to Bob up the Dolly thread (GBV song title alert).

Re Beatles matchy outfits, leave us not forget the very nudge-nudge covers and music of Pepper's and Magical. Also they tended to semi-match even when going all casual, as on covers of Rubber and Abbey.

Blood On The Tracks could seem alarmingly tasteful in early listens, but soon enough it became apparent (if still not always that involving) that he was taking the singer-songwriter thing back, re-Dylanizing it in current terms, trying to get everybody, incl. Sarah, to sympathize. Didn't always work. ("It's expensive to get divorced in California," one reason for all that 70s touring.)
Sorry to Bob it up some more; Ye Mad Puffin and others otm.

I AM TAPPING THE SIGN NOW please no more Bob <3 I beg you

https://americansongwriter.com/dolly-does-dylan-how-a-bob-dylan-rejection-stripped-us-of-a-dolly-parton-album/

DOLLY DOES DYLAN

We rewatched Best Little Whorehouse for the humpteenth time and cried during “Hard Candy Xmas” and “I Will Always Love You.” Dang she’s gorgeous in that movie.

"I paid my dues, time after time," and that's just the beginning, of course:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbF11BeP1kA

This whole thing keeps getting weirder

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/oct/06/dolly-parton-nephew-bryan-seaver-lawsuit