Dolly Parton - Dolly

RCA Nashville Legacy 88875006172



Few artists command a fan base as large and loyal as Dolly Parton, a veteran who has successfully juggled the roles of country star, acclaimed songwriter, public personality, film star and businesswoman. Well-known for her playful personality and often light-hearted repertoire, Dolly often doesn’t get the respect her talent merits. With her worldwide album sales now exceeding 100 million Dolly Parton is unequivocally the most celebrated female in country music history; so much so that she is known to music fans around the world simply as Dolly! This new 4-CD box set is probably one of the most comprehensive and wide-ranging retrospective collections of her 50-year career in music.

The 99 tracks selected delve back into the very early days of Dolly’s remarkable career—beginning with recordings that she made when she was just 13 (the self-penned Puppy Love and Girl Left Alone) and her first Nashville recordings from three years later (including the previously unissued Nobody But You and her long forgotten Mercury single It’s Sure Gonna Hurt). All of the well-known hits are here from the 1970s and 1980s, including duets with Porter Wagoner, Kenny Rogers and Ricky Van Shelton, but if there is one flaw, it’s that this collection only takes us up to 1993. Which brings me around to the biggest gripe, why are none of the more recent bluegrass/mountain songs from her Sugar Hill repertoire here? Despite this faux pas, this is still a first rate compilation that comes complete with a 64pp booklet with a superbly written essay by music journalist Holly George, a full discography on all the recordings featured, an introduction by Laura Cantrell and quotes from such fellow performers and fans as Porter Wagoner, Marty Stuart, Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam, Mindy Smith and many others.

Obviously, of prime importance is the music, and I’ve lived with many of these recordings for more years than I care to remember. From my purchase of JUST BECAUSE I’M A WOMAN, Dolly’s first RCA album in 1968, I’ve collected virtually every one of her albums; many I bought and later I was sent review copies, but if not, then I would buy them to keep my collection complete. In short, I’m coming at this review as a fan, as well as a music critic. Trying to pick out the best or the highlights of this compilation is going to be highly personal and I make no apologies for that.

This collection includes some of the most moving moments from her early RCA days, singing convincingly in that fragile tear-jerking whisper of a voice on the bittersweet Just The Way I Am, the reflective In The Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad), and the tenderly sung tale of regret that is My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy. She gets sassy on the delightfully energetic Mule Skinner Blues with a yodel and a whoop and holler, before going the spiritual route on Joshua, which gets an all-out gospel treatment. Character portraiture is another of her strong suits, as evidenced here by Daddy’s Moonshine Still and Traveling Man. My Tennessee Mountain Home, another very early song is one of her most beautiful and human songs, inspired by her father's homesick return to the Smokeys after a few weeks working in Detroit.

Few artists are capable of conveying such a wide range of emotions, arranging them so coherently, or knocking you to the floor with such exposed vocal performances as Dolly Parton. If in any doubt about this woman's ability as a songwriter and communicator of the human psyche, just listen to such insightful songs as Daddy Come And Get Me, which touches on emotional abuse as the young wife pleads to her father to rescue her from a mental institution or Down From Dover, about the plight of a pregnant unwed girl, who waits in vain for the father while being shunned by her parents, and be prepared to be convinced. There are others which explore alcohol abuse, cheating husbands and the death of a young child, all subjects that are taboo in this so-called politically-correct age. Cynics might be quick to dismiss the lyrics as being too syrupy. However, these are the kind of sentimental songs that country’s core audience readily relates to.

The flamenco-tinged groove of Jolene remains as captivating today as it did some 40 years ago, but, the killer track remains the first version of I Will Always Love You, one of her most delicate and beautiful originals. It’s a song that has been unfairly transformed into something resembling a workout tape for over-singing, but then Whit’s over-the-top take has probably funded Dollywood for the past two decades. In Dolly’s hands, the verses are sung rather than mumbled, and the chorus is more fragile than thunderous. It’s a song made timeless by its simplicity, just like the best offerings by the Carter Family or Hank Williams.

Then we come to the delicate Love Is Like A Butterfly, better-known to many in Britain as the theme to a popular TV sit-com than as a Dolly Parton song and the well-known pop smash 9 to 5, demonstrating Dolly’s ability to move effortlessly outside of the confines of country music and still create quality songs. She also showcases her skill as an interpreter of other people’s songs with distinctive renditions of Hugh Moffatt’s Old Flames (Can’t Hold A Candle To You), Carole Bayer Sager’s Heartbreaker, Donna Summer’s Starting Over Again and the superb Mann-Weill pop classic Here You Come Again. I should add, that in spite of her huge pop crossover success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Dolly was still writing and recording some great, rootsy country songs. Some of the best of these are featured here including Applejack, Me And Little Andy and Yellow Roses. At times vulnerable, at times fiercely passionate, her voice imbues these traditional-sounding country songs with a wealth of emotion.

From powerful heartbreaking ballads to strident hillbilly romps, late night torch songs to modern country-pop Dolly offers a wide, varied and entertaining mix that is quite irresistible—as always.

The divine Dolly, the queen of country glam, the uptown hillbilly with a voice that can cut through to your soul. Contrary to popular belief, Ms Parton has three, rather than two, robust talents, and all have nothing to do with her brassiere. There is that brilliant career sense that has allowed her to enjoy the iconic radiance of Elvis without the road ending at the toilet. There’s a voice that ranks among the most recognisable in music, country or otherwise. And as the author of so many of her own classic songs, there’s also a secure legacy that will outlast the lustre of her starshine, which seems unthinkable these days, as it still glitters like rhinestones. An essential collection, unless of course you’ve already got loads of Dolly albums, in which case go to the top of the country class.

www.dollyparton.com