Happy Birthday, Dolly Parton!

My friend Nancy Cardwell recently wrote a book about the words and music of Dolly Parton. I asked if she would share some stories and information, and the timing was good as Dolly's birthday is today. Nancy has served as the Special Projects Director for the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) since 1994. She also plays the bass, writes songs, and works as a freelance magazine writer. Thank you, Nancy, for being a guest blogger!
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On January 19 on of the most uniquely talented artists of our time will turn 66: Miss Dolly Rebecca Parton. After a career that so far spans more than four decades and more than an estimated 3,000 original songs, Parton has found success nearly in nearly every direction she has set her hazel eyes upon: country music, pop music, movies, television, bluegrass, and Celtic-edged folk music—which she calls "blue mountain music" in reference to her Smoky Mountain home in east Tennessee. She's a brilliant songwriter, music publisher and producer with 26 gold and platinum records and 113 charting singles (including 25 #1 songs) to her credit.  She founded an international charity, Imagination Library, which helps children to read by giving them a book every month through the age of five. She owns a theme park empire in conjunction with the Herschend family in Branson, Missouri—most notably Dollywood, in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and also the Dixie Stampede chain, which presents live music and spectacular horsemanship with fried chicken on the side to thousands of tourists every year. In recent years she's written the music for a touring Broadway show based on the 9 to 5 movie she starred in back in 1980, she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Tennessee, she wrote and published the children’s books I Am A Rainbow and Coat of Many Colors; and she has a new movie with Queen Latifah launching this month: Joyful Noise.

Of all the things Dolly has done (and all she continues to do), the thing she’s most proud of is her songwriting. In fact, she’s said the best way to really get to know her is through the words in her songs.

A couple of years ago Praeger, a publishing company now owned by ABC-CLIO, contacted me about writing a book about Dolly Parton’s songs. It’s a part of a series of books about a number of artists from different genres who write most of their own material, and Dolly was the first featured writer from the country music world. For a year and a half I dashed over to the Country Music Hall ofFame and Museum here in Nashville during my lunch hours to listen to old Dolly albums, along with several recorded with her well-known duet partner in the ‘60s, Porter Wagoner. Dolly wasn’t available to talk to me herself (she was in New York City working on the music for that Broadway play, then at Dollywood, then opening a new retail shop in Nashville, then in Atlanta filming with Queen Latifah, then touring in Australia…. The woman sleeps very little and wakes up with 20 or so new ideas every morning, I think!) But I  was able to schedule interviews with several folks who have worked with her. BuckTrent, who hosts a country show in Branson, Missouri now, was a member of Porter Wagoner’s Wagonmasters when Dolly was in the band; Les Leverett was the staff photographer at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 30 years and he took the photos for several of Dolly’s album covers; Fred Foster at Monument Records was the first person in Nashville to sign Dolly to a record label; John Starling (yes, that John Starling—former lead singer of The Seldom Scene), was the music director for the Trio albums Dolly recorded with Emmylou and LindaRonstadt; Steve Buckingham was a producer and close friend; and Terry Smith and Jamie Johnson, from bluegrass supergroup The Grascals, played as the opening act and in Parton’s band when they were first getting started. 

There are precious few individuals on this planet who have seemingly been touched by greatness and divine purpose—whether they be political leaders, philosophers, writers or artists. In the world of country music writers and singers, there is no one who has had a more profound influence than Dolly Parton. The work she did with Porter Wagoner while she was still in her 20s defined duet singing for the genre. But there's more to Dolly Parton than country music. Her charismatic personality, determined will, and bottomless well of creative genius has influenced and charmed the world. Lyrically, there is no other writer of any genre who does a better job of portraying the human condition through deceptively simple, yet compelling lyrics and melodies.

The characters and stories in her songs--which range from romance to tragedy, from deeply spiritual to inspired exaltations of the natural world---are unparalleled. Particularly from her perspective as a woman, we see every shade of emotion experienced in every imaginable predicament a girl can find herself in. Men who want to understand women better (as well as the human heart), would do well to study the lyrics of Dolly Parton. It's all there.

The entire third chapter of the book, which was published the end of July 2011 and titled The Words and Music of Dolly Parton—Getting to Know Country’s IronButterfly, is about the characters in Dolly’s songs. Have you ever read a book or seen a movie in which the characters seemed so real that you were still wondering what they were up to a week or two later? The characters in Dolly’s songs are like that. To illustrate that point, I made up a series of super-short story vignettes, expanding on some of her characters and what they might say if they were telling the stories in their songs themselves. My editor liked the creativity behind my first chapter 3, but he thought it was just a little too different from the rest of the book. (Or rather, he thought the literary critics might think it was a little too different.)  I, of course, was bummed because I had all this fun making up the stories. If you get a chance to read the book, be sure to  take a look at “chapter 3a”—thefirst version, that got left on the cutting room floor. Then come to my Facebook page and tell me which version you like best.

If you’d like to order a book, they’re available from Amazon.com, Barnes &Noble, Booksamillion and me (at nancyk.cardwell@gmail.com if you’d like an autographed copy.)  I’ll be honest—they’re a bit pricey, thanks to my publisher. But the classic black & white photos from Les Leverett, Don Loftin and Becky Johnson are definitely worth the price of the book. ABC-CLIO markets mainly to libraries; so you can also go to your local public or school library and demand that they purchase a copy!

I played in an all-girl bluegrass band in the early ‘90s at Dollywood, and in recent years I have met Dolly Parton twice.  Both times I was struck by her beauty and just how small she is—particularly for someone with such a larger-than-life persona. (I’m almost six feet tall, and a bit of an Amazon, in comparison!) I was backstage at a concert in Virginia the first time I met Ms. Parton, on assignment for Bluegrass Unlimited magazine to write an article about The Grascals. Around 20 or 30 people were gathered backstage in a large circle at the “Meet & Greet,” and Dolly came around to visit with each of us personally. She posed for pictures, sang little bits of favorite songs, called people’s mothers on their cell phones and asked us questions—all the time appearing to be truly interested in who we were and what we had to say. She signed an autograph for my daughter, listened when I told her about how my little sister Susan and I used to sing “Coat of Many Colors” when we were kids growing up in our family bluegrass band in the Ozarks, and I had my picture made with her and The Grascals. The guys told her I was writing an article about them, and she said “it had better be a good one or she would kick my butt.”  (I’m not sure she could reach it….) She did fax me a nice quote to use with the story later, and so far she hasn’t shown up at my office on Music Row to kick me in the caboose—a good thing!

The second time I met Dolly was in the studio with John McEuen (of the Nitty GrittyDirt Band), Vince Gill and Steve Martin—who was recording his first banjo album. This blog is getting a bit longer than Andrea asked for, so I’ll save that story for another time. 

Don’t forget to raise a  toast to Miss Dolly Parton this Thursday on her birthday, and go catch that movie if you can. Even if you’re not a fan of her music (not everyone is), it’s impossible not to be inspired by her aura of goodwill and hope and creative energy. The difference between Dolly and the average person aside from her talent, is her ability to dream big, work hard to make those dreams come true, and never stop for a minute to doubt they will come true. She has that much faith—in herself and the Lord. (But again, that’s another story and another chapter of the book!)  And, of course, she’s accomplished all of these things wearing four-inch heels. (I prefer cowboy boots, thank you very much.)

Thanks for reading!

-Nancy Cardwell

IBMA Special Projects Director
2 Music Circle South, Ste. 100
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 256-3222
nancyc@ibma.org, nancyk.cardwell@gmail.com, www.ibma.org