No matter how flamboyantly pop Dolly Parton's music became in the early Eighties, she was always a country girl at heart. Today it's the reverse: No matter how back-to-basics-country her recent albums have been, her heart still sparkles with glitter and sequins. Dolly practically invented the peppy Top Forty sound the Dixie Chicks are now known for, but her own pop albums are hit-or-miss. Too much of Backwoods Barbie, her mainstream country comeback, comes off like the overproduced twang of younger country ingénues who try to sound like Dolly Parton. And her cover of Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy" is Disco Dolly at her cheesiest. The best songs are the no-frills ones, like the title track, an old-fashioned, autobiographical folk ballad about growing up poor and dreaming of being pretty, infused with milky pedal steel guitar. Dolly earns an extra half-star for the goofy pun in "Better Get to Livin'" that only she could get away with: "Well, I'm not the Dalai Lama/But I'll try to offer up a few words of advice." If she asked the Dalai Lama, he'd probably advise that simplicity is the key to good country music in the modern world. Add as favourites (9) | Quote this article on your site | Views: 124
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Dolly Parton is almost more famous for her impossibly curvaceous figure and huge hair than for her music -- which is somewhat of a shame. She is, after all, a distinctive and important part of country music, representing a link from the music of her Appalachian birth place to country's crossover to pop. Parton is a multifaceted artist whose first success came as a songwriter in the mid-1960s, with hit songs recorded by Bill Phillips. After she became Porter Wagoner's singing partner, her career took off and she became a solo artist by 1971. She consistently charted throughout the '70s and crossed over to the Pop charts with " Here You Come Again" in 1977. Along the way Parton became a genuine pop culture icon. Despite the glitzy, glamorous aura that surrounds her, on her recordings Parton always manages to include some element that seems like pure country. As Nashville in the '90s has continued to show its disdain for veteran performers -- and for that matter any artist who doesn't seem genetically engineered -- Parton seems to be backing away from her own image. Her latest releases have been straight bluegrass and countrified folk-pop albums that she's recorded with members of Nashville's elite community of virtuoso bluegrass pickers.
- Eric Shea
Dolly's Career 
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