Pages tagged “dolly parton”

Almost thirty years after starring in the film version of Nine to Five, seven-time Grammy-winner Dolly Parton adapted the 1980 classic into her first musical. The Saturday premiere was attended by dozens of big-name stage patrons, including original cast members Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dabney Coleman. The show had been hyped as a crowd-pleaser, but Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theater was less than thrilled when shortly after beginning, the performance was halted due to "technical difficulties."

As Ben Gibbard ponders the meaning of life in our May issue, Brian Howe explores the nature of mother through the song lyrics of rap stars, indie rockers and, uh, Glen Danzig. Though the most important conclusion I drew from the piece is that I am really glad Danzig is not my son, it also reinforced for me the notion that, much like armpits, everybody has a mom—and like armpits, some people’s moms stink. Like, really stink—Ghostface Killah’s mom beat him for peeing the bed! Harsh, Mama Killah!

Quite unlike armpits, though, mothers are the subject of a few great songs. Iron & Wine’s “Upward Over the Mountain” and Smog’s “I Feel Like The Mother Of The World” are two of my favorites among the ones Howe mentions. Of course, it’s not just men that have immortalized and/or vilified their mothers in song. Plenty of female musicians have raised a musical glass to the women they came from (and may or may not, one day, become). Though lacking in Oedipal awkwardness, these songs still pack a punch.

Country legend Dolly Parton outdid her last major-label album Those Were the Days (2005) with her new self-released Backwoods Barbie, which hit # 2 on the U.S. album chart last week.

After being dropped by Sugar Hill Records because of her decline in mainstream success, the enterprising Dollywood theme park owner culled her resources to put out an album “tailor-made” for her fan-base. As a result, digital sales made up 16 percent of the album's sales in the first week, high for a country album but not for a straight-to-fans release.

"Now the majors are what they used to think I was," Parton told the Associated Press. "History."

Related links:
DollyParton.com
Dolly Parton on MySpace
Rolling Stone: The Future According to Radiohead

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At a stop on Dolly Parton’s last tour, I sat, amazed, at the people who filed in next to me. To my left, a young, gay African-American couple compared Parton and Diana Ross. To my right, a middle-aged Caucasian biker-chick and her mother vented their disappointment over a recent Neil Young concert (apparently, he didn’t perform enough of his older hits). And behind me, a grey-haired Southern grandmother discussed the nuances of her Thanksgiving turkey breast and glazed ham.

Onstage, Parton expertly hovered between credible tunesmith and guilty pleasure, but helping create solidarity between so many different types of people—if only for a night at a time—might be her greatest career achievement. Never mind Charley Pride and Cowboy Troy, diversity has never been one of country music’s strong suits, yet this petite woman with a larger-than-life persona has found a way to relate to almost everyone.

It should come, then, as no surprise that director Duncan Tucker asked her to write and perform the theme song for his feature-film debut, Transamerica, the story of a pre-operative transsexual woman and her son bonding on a cross-country trip. Parton’s “Travelin’ Thru” anchors a gutsy soundtrack featuring Americana artists such as Lucinda Williams, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Jim Lauderdale and Ralph Stanley.

Before Parton and I discuss her Oscar-nominated tune, she can’t resist a self-deprecating joke. “I did not have a sex change,” she hollers before belting out a high-pitched squeal. “Thank God!”

Parton says while writing the song she drew inspiration from the experiences of a close transsexual friend (affectionately calling him “A Boy Named Sue”), but the song’s refreshing African beats and delicate bluegrass flourishes drive lyrics less focused on the film’s specifics and more on the universal feelings of being an outsider. Like Transamerica’s heroine, Parton has felt like one since her childhood.

I WILL ALWAYS LOVE… DIFFERENCES
Parton’s individuality took hold when, as a young girl, she first spied a local woman with piled peroxide-blonde hair and flashy clothes. Although enamored with the woman’s beauty, she was naive about her reputation. “Momma said, ‘Aww, she’s just trash,’” Parton remembers. “I said ‘Well that’s what I’m gonna be when I grow up, I’m gonna be trash.” Dolly adopted the look, which came to accessorize her fascination with outsiders. “I looked like a whore from day one—I acted like one, I talked like one, but I wasn’t one,” she says seriously. “I was just very outgoing. I just loved everybody and do to this day. I love the di?erence in people. I don’t care what they are.”

Not only did her appearance cause conflict with her religious family, it yielded scorn from parents of classmates who believed her a bad influence. But in reality, Parton says, it was their kids “screwing everybody,” not her.

Adding even more scrutiny were her dreams, because in the rural climate of Sevierville, Tenn., life’s trajectory was often non-negotiable (Parton’s mother married in the seventh grade). At her high-school graduation, Parton told classmates and their families she was going to Nashville to be a star—an innocent, earnest statement no different to her than another classmate wanting marriage. Everyone—including the parents—laughed. Recounting the story, Parton lapses into verse, feeling her 1987 song “Wild?ower” best illustrates the point:

The hills were alive with wildflowers
And I was as wild,
even wilder than they
For at least I could run,
They just died in the sun
And I refused to just wither in place.

The day after graduation, she hopped a bus bound for Nashville. Forty-two years later, no one ever questions the validity of her dreams—past or present. Currently, she’s planning a children’s book entitled I am a Rainbow as well as an accompanying children’s album. And not forgetting adults, she hopes to record a gospel album and a new dance record. All of these projects, she says, are designed to uplift as well as to let people know it’s okay to be different. Projects that, if available, would’ve helped her cope as a child and young adult.

Ironically, due to her broad acceptance, Parton says she still gets “crucified” by ultra-conservative religious groups—mostly in the form of threats against her Pigeon Forge, Tenn., theme park, Dollywood. Still, when so many label those different from themselves (transsexual or otherwise) “freaks,” Parton calls them friends.

“I know that we all belong to God,” she says. “I just don’t understand why people can’t let people be themselves… whatever that is.”

Gender-Bending Talk from Dolly Parton

Do men underestimate your business skills? They’ll get caught off guard now and then. I’m not that smart, I’m just a very professional Dolly Parton … I know what my limitations are and I know the areas where I’m strongest, but I do think at times people will underestimate me—certainly in the early days. But I’d had their money and gone before it hit ‘em that I wasn’t as dumb as I looked.

If you were a man, what kind of man would you be? A good one. An honest one. A fun one. A smart one. A passionate one. A horny one. Did I say a handsome one?

What advice would you give a man who’s considering becoming a woman? Well, I’d just say buy shoes that are comfortable and buy boobs that you can sleep with. Don’t get ’em so big that you can’t roll over.

What are your thoughts on men who dress up as you? I’m so little; so short and tiny. What gets me is all these drag queens—they’re always about six-feet tall and they’re huge! Don’t we have any little Dollys out there?

Few women in Country music have navigated the great rhinestone highway from “girl singer” to entertainer like Dolly Parton. There have been notable exceptions like Barbara Mandrell, Reba McEntire and, most recently, Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks. But Dolly paved the way.

Filmed in Dollywood’s Celebrity Theater at the end of 2002’s Halos and Horns tour, Live and Well finds Parton just so. Her famous curves leap in time to the stellar, lively opening of “Orange Blossom Special/Train Train.” Still, she loves to quickly “Bring ya’ down”—with the gorgeous “The Grass is Blue” and haunting “Mountain Angel”—from her calmer forays into bluegrass.

The brief pop crossover is here, too. “9 to 5” resonates most with the audience, while the a cappella medley including “Islands In the Stream,” “Here You Come Again,” and “Two Doors Down” would make any soul group proud. The real highlight, though, is seeing Parton add some mountain soul to a few classic-rock songs. She brings an ethereal quality to Neil Young’s “After the Goldrush” and turns Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” into a raise-the-rafters gospel shout. She truly climbs the pinnacle of spiritual bliss, however, by whipping everyone into a frenzy for her Grammy-winning version of Collective Soul’s “Shine.”

In a live setting, Dolly Parton the artist rarely upstages Dolly Parton the personality—charming her audience with giggles and jokes both between and during songs. Acknowledging perhaps the most diverse audience in Country, she honors “the guys” by changing the lyrics of “Jolene” to “Your smile is like a breath of Spring / Your voice is soft like summer rain / Well, I cannot compete with you drag queens.”

Parton honed her attention to specific fans during the Halos tour, which played smaller club venues. Live’s larger production, unfortunately, loses much of that intimacy, but the shtick and rhinestones shine bright regardless. And, 40 years into her career, so does that unmistakable Appalachian voice.