DOLLY PARTON'S LEGACY OF SOUL
- By Alan Richard
- 2 hours ago
- 7 min read
Like everyone, I’m struggling to accept the news that the great Dolly Parton has departed this world.
Listening to Dolly songs on WSM Radio from Nashville all afternoon Tuesday reminded me of Parton’s magic and her versatility among all the wonderful things she gave us. The Tennessean newspaper reported that she’d given more than $500 million to causes she believed in. Think about that.
Her status as a cultural icon is well-deserved and has been analyzed by many writers and scholars. "In her songwriting, movie roles, and stage persona, Parton's exaltation of this frequently vilified class of American woman (sometimes considered trashy looking) is at once the greatest self-aware gender performance in modern history and a sincere expression of who Parton is," author Sarah Smarsh writes in the book She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs.
"Known for her 'fake' appearance -- the wigs, the synthetic fabrics clinging to a surgically altered body, the acrylic nails in pastel shades -- Parton can be a very dark realist when she writes," Smarsh wrote. "That darkness in a woman's voice, plain stories of hell on earth sung by women who have little to carry them forward but faith, is the divine feminine of American roots music."
As for her music, I’ll forever treasure the music Dolly made with two of my other favorite artists, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt. Their first album together, Trio, in 1987 couldn’t be better, from their version of Phil Spector’s “To Know Him Is to Love Him” to Dolly’s original, “Wildflowers,” complete with autoharp.
Trio II from 2007 is also worth a listen and includes some superior performances by Harris. It covers somewhat more contemporary ground compared to the first album, including their spooky-but-stellar version of Neil Young’s bizarre “After the Gold Rush.” Dolly sings lead on her own “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind,” John Starling’s “He Rode All the Way to Texas,” and Del McCoury’s “I Feel the Blues Movin’ In.”
Dolly’s early country and Appalachian-influenced story songs came straight from her roots. She eventually transcended genre, recording several R&B songs. Many of her pop and country songs over the years drew on influences like R&B, jazz, and show tunes.
I was fascinated to learn, while researching my earlier piece on Barry Gibb’s country influences, that “Islands in the Stream” was originally written by the Gibb Brothers for Diana Ross, for whom they produced the album Eaten Alive.
“The R&B song became a country song. There's such a close link between country music and R&B music. Songs like ‘How Can You Mend A Broken Heart,’ the rest, these are country songs,” Gibb said in a BBC interview.
While “I Will Always Love You” was a major hit for Dolly as a farewell to musical partner Porter Waggoner, it also became one of the greatest (if overblown) pop and R&B performances of all time by Whitney Houston.
She recorded Doc Pomus’ (and The Drifters’) “Save the Last Dance for Me” with The Jordanaires on her 1984 album The Great Pretender, Jackie Wilson’s Your Love Is Lifting Me (Higher and Higher), and a somewhat cheesy version of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Everyday People” on her 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs album. She even covered Prince’s “Purple Rain” ably on her more recent Rock Star record.
One of Dolly’s most stellar performances of all, in my view, is her version of Brandi Carlile’s “The Story.” In her 70s by this time, Dolly still shows incredible range and passion. Carlile remembered Dolly on Tuesday. “She took my face in her hands and prayed over me once. I’ve never been the same since,” Carlile wrote. “Thank you Dolly — you changed the whole world and never let it change you.”
I also love Dolly’s own “Two Doors Down” from her 1977 album Here You Come Again. It’s an R&B-inspired pop song, and Dolly even raps (speaks) during the song’s breakdown. As showy as it is, the title track from this album remains timeless and perfectly performed. You can listen to it 1,000 times.
Today, WSM radio played Dolly’s version of “Everything Is Beautiful (In Its Own Way)” with Willie Nelson, from the soundtrack album The Winning Hand, which also featured Brenda Lee and Kris Kristofferson. Dolly’s delivery sounds almost Celtic (or like a song from the “Old World,” as she told Ken Burns in his Country Music documentary series on PBS), while Nelson’s delivery is soulful and as transcendent as Dolly’s often were.
I’ve always thought of “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” as a Black gospel song. Originally on Dolly’s 1977 album on New Harvest… First Gathering, she later remade it with Reba, Queen Latifah, Lainey Wilson, and Miley Cyrus, and sang a duet version with Queen Latifah on the Joyful Noise movie soundtrack.
On WSM Radio, they were playing “Real Love,” her 1985 duet with Kenny Rogers — a far lesser duet than “Islands in the Stream,” for sure. On the former, Kenny sounds like anyone. Dolly sounds perfect, as she almost always did.
Dolly’s bluegrass was most definitely full of mountain soul. Her 1999 album The Grass Is Blue is breathtaking and got me back into her music. Every part is wonderful, from her jubilant version of the Louvin Brothers’ classic “Cash on the Barrelhead” to her rockin’ take on Billy Joel’s “Travelin’ Prayer,” to the hold-your-breath suspense of her stunning “Silver Dagger.”
Her 2001 follow-up bluegrass album, Little Sparrow, includes the ancient sounding title track, plus remarkable remakes of the Louvin Brothers’ “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby,” Steve Goodman’s “Seven Bridges Road,” and even Collective Soul’s “Shine.”
I only saw Dolly perform live once, at MerleFest in North Carolina, with the band from The Grass is Blue, including Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas, I think. She was effortlessly great and hilarious, once stopping a song after swallowing a bug.
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville has a current exhibit on Dolly called The Journey of a Seeker, curated by singer and writer Allison Moorer. You can see some of the exhibit artifacts online, include the tape recorder Dolly used when writing songs such as “Jolene.”
You can also visit Dolly’s relatively new museum at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, near her hometown of Sevierville.
I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Dolly’s founding of the Imagination Library, which has provides children with millions of books in the U.S. and around the world. It’s a reminder that many kids don’t have the access to books that they need, and Dolly made it clear that this should be one of our main priorities as a society.
I went to look up a few more facts on Dolly’s website Tuesday, but of course, it had crashed.
Other moments from Dolly’s long career that I really like and want to share:
Emmylou’s version of the 1969 Dolly song “My Blue Ridge Mountain Boy,” a heartbreaking tale of a girl who ends up in New Orleans wishing for the innocent boy next door back home in the hills.
In 1971’s “Coat of Many Colors,” a moving moment in the forthcoming Dolly musical, which I got to see an early performance of in Nashville, she tells the true story of her mother making her a patchwork coat with love. I also love Emmylou’s version.
Her 1976 remake of Emmylou and Bill Danoff’s classic “Boulder to Birmingham," from Dolly’s album All I Can Do.
Dolly’s beautiful version of Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s “Southern Accents,” included on the 2024 tribute album, Petty Country.
The brilliant musician and producer Buddy Miller recounted a good Dolly story on Instagram Tuesday: “She came to my house to sing on Solomon Burke’s Nashville record… arrived early, stayed late, and told stories of her husband Carl taking her to see Solomon play in small Nashville clubs.”
Ronnie Milsap, about whom I recently wrote an in-depth piece, joked on Instagram that “she always called her my blind date.”
My friend Joetta, a Nashville native now living in Virginia, told me a story about Dolly on Tuesday. Her mother was part of a group of friends, one of whom got their nails done at the same place as Dolly, who invited Dolly to attend a 60th birthday celebration. Dolly sent a signed letter:
“Hey Girls, Thank you for inviting me to your birthday celebration, but I didn’t get the letter until after we had all turned 60.I saw the pictures. We look dang good for our age! Thank you for thinking of me. Have a great next 60!”
I was touched by rapper Eminem’s sharing of a letter Dolly wrote him after his Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction. (She’s been inducted, too.) “Keep doing what you’re doing because you do it so well and no matter how complex your world may be, just know you are very special and touch people in ways you don’t even know.”
On Instagram, singer-songwriter Eric Brace recalled the time his Washington, D.C.-based band Last Train Home opened for Parton at DAR Constitution Hall in 2005:
“I wish I could say we all got to hang out and share some laughs and stories, but we didn’t get to meet her,” Brace wrote. “I loved being in that historic hall while she sound checked (in a stunning outfit that her stage manager told me was just one of her “soundcheck outfits,” after I asked why she was already dressed for the show)... She delivered the goods, singing her incredible songs in her incredible voice to her adoring fans. (They were very polite to LTH but definitely couldn’t wait for us to be done and for Dolly to come on). Her career — in music and outside music — defies belief. My friend the photographer/videographer Stacie Huckeba… hired my wife Mary Ann to be her assistant on the very cool project of photographing Dolly’s entire wardrobe from the past 50 years. That project led to a stunning book, and lots of stories… Now Dolly Parton is gone… and we should all always be asking ourselves: What would Dolly do...?”
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