averyfineline » Dolly Parton

Queering Jesus

Avery — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 20:22:38 +0000

Speaking of Martin Roth, I’m glad he brought up the Dolly Parton performance at the Oscars. Parton, you recall, performed the song she recorded for the film TransAmerica. It was a striking performance, not only because Parton was wearing a onesie, but because she continues to use her popularity and success to insist (as she has in numerous interviews and from the stage of countless of her performances) on the universality of Christ’s love, even and especially for people who have traditionally been made to feel less than welcome in the church. There’s an audacious generosity to that position - the eagerness to befriend the stigmatized and “sinful” in unconditional embrace - that strikes me as very Christlike. Next thing you know we’ll be hearing that Judas actually didn’t betray Christ at all.

The Dolly connection

Avery — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 20:10:58 +0000

One very alert reader sent this fascinating laundry list of Dolly Parton/sg intersections. So here we go.

1) Though the Kingdom Heirs were already employed by Silver Dollar City and inherited their Dollywood position when Dolly Parton became an equal partner to the Herschends, the Kingdom Heirs have actually recorded with Parton prior to the HRC cd project. The group backed Parton on several tracks on a gospel hymns project titled Precious Memories that can only be purchased at Dollywood.

2) Porter Wagoner often credits Dolly (who was a member of his cast) for bringing the gospel groups to his attention that later were booked as guests on his syndicated television series. Guests included but are not limited to The Blackwood Brothers (Porter did two albums with BB so maybe this was his idea?), Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters, The Rambos, and The Lefevres.

3) Dolly Parton was one of the performers at the very first Wendy Bagwell Days.

4) Dolly sang at Little Jan Buckner’s daughter’s wedding.

5) Dolly has recipes in both Vestal Goodman and Dottie Rambo’s cook books.

6) Dolly has recorded three Gospel themed albums Golden Streets Of Glory, Precious Memories (features Kingdom Heirs) and For God and Country (features The Fairfield Four).

7) Former member of the Downings Joy Gardner is a frequent background vocalist for Dolly on television and concerts. Alongside of Joy Gardner, Christ Church’s Jennifer O’brien served as a BGV for Parton for most of the 90s and often is used on special appearances today.

Dolly was heavily mentioned in Vestal Goodman’s autobiography and interviewed in the More Than The Music biopic of Dottie Rambo.

9) Dolly has recorded duets with Vestal Goodman (”Satisfied”), with Dottie Rambo (”Stand By The River”), and with the Christian Contemporary group Selah.

10) Compositions written by Parton have been covered by but not limited to the following SG artists: Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters, Jeff and Sheri Easter and JD Sumner and the Stamps. One of Bill Gaither’s Homecoming Christmas Videos also features a Dolly composition.

11) According to www.dollymania.net 2004 archives and www.dottierambo.net news section Dottie Rambo and Dolly Parton have won two Christian Fan Awards for the duet “Stand By The River.”

12) Dolly Parton’s album Little Sparrow featured Sonya and Becky Isaacs singing backup on two tracks “Mary Me” and “Seven Bridges Road.” Michael English sang back up on a track for Parton’s “Slow Dancing With The Moon” album. The Christ Church Choir has backed Dolly on several CMA Awards Show appearances, in concert and on several recordings including a well received version of “He’s Alive” written by Christian contemporary writer Don Fransico.

13) According to www.dollymania.net and www.aaroncrisleronline.com Dolly recorded a duet with sg newcomer Aaron Crisler who was formerly with Naomi Sego and the Segos.

14) Gold City and The Florida Boys opened Dolly’s benefit shows for her scholarship programs at Dollywood this also was in conjunction with the opening of the SGMA Hall Of Fame at Dollywood.

15) Parton filmed an all gospel cable television special for the now defunct TNN network which featured The Kingdom Heirs and Kirk Talley as guests. In the show a segment about Southern Gospel and the The SGMA Hall Of Fame opening at Dollywood took place with clips of the Chuck Wagon Gang and other notable groups as well as audio from Wendy Bagwell who was the latest inductee at the time.

16) In Dolly’s autobiography in her thank you section Wendy Bagwell and the Sunliters are among the names listed.

17) Dolly appeared on sg booking agent Sonny Simmons’s Country Gospel TV show in the 70’s.

18) During the Grand Opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for the SGMA Hall Of Fame Dolly took the large scissors and pretended to cut Guy Penrod’s hair. The picture made the super market tabloids but not the Singing News.

Perhaps it’s unnecessary to ask at this point, but are there others?

Echoes from Dollywood (II of II)

Avery — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 20:09:02 +0000

From people who should know, I hear that the Kingdom Heirs flap indeed isn’t ‘t the first time Dolly Parton’s actions have not dovetailed with the values of the Dollywood target market. In contractual terms, the Herschend family - who are business owners with Parton in Dollywood - have a final say on most park management-related issues, so all you folks losing sleep over the possibility that the homuhsexshul uh-ginduh is taking over east Tennessee, go back to sleep. The Herschends, good Baptist stock and upstanding Republicans, probably aren’t going to encourage any deviations from the conservative family-values pitch they’ve used at their parks for so long (they also own Silver Dollar City, Branson). However, they do not have ANY control (contractual or otherwise) over Dolly’s performing career or any activities outside the confines of her tourism ventures with them. Thus, they cannot stop her increasingly public and vocal support for gay rights, even if they wanted to (and I suspect they do). What could happen is that Dolly would stop being a part of the marketing at the Pigeon Forge park (the name could even go back to Silver Dollar City) or the Herschends could buy her out entirely. No matter how stupid I think it would be to sever the relationship with Parton from a business and entertainment perspective, don’t forget how powerful ideology can be. The SBC has boycotted Disney and times could get unpleasant indeed if the SBC and Jim Dobson et al turned their wrath on Dollywood (and Dollywood probably avoided getting boycotted only by vigorously disaffiliating itself from rumors last year of a gay-days at Dollywood).Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t offer some context to my earlier comments about Parton and Dollywood: The rise in the 1990s of Dollywood was much more of a Herschend thing than a Dolly Parton thing. She seems to have become the public face of the park because it was a nice fit and made financial sense. And though I continue to believe/hope that she has an abiding affection for the gospel roots of country music, it’s probably fair to say she also doesn’t stay up at night wondering about new ways to help promote sg. Which is to say, while sg types love to throw their connections with Dollywood around and while they don’t interrupt anyone who’s getting the impression that doing bidness with Dollywood is doing bidness with Dolly, the real deal for most sg stuff at Dollywood is probably done primarily with the Herschends or their blessing and influence. The PR Dolly will embrace sg all day long (and obviously she knows enough about her house quartet to use them on a recording, a much more flattering recognition than, say, Louise Mandrell’s habit of commandeering the stage during Triumphity’s performances at her theater and forcing them in BGV formation right there on the spot); but the performer Dolly will always be invested primarily in pop culture and its music.

Oh Dolly where art thou?

Avery — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 19:45:03 +0000

Did anyone else notice that Dollywood - Disney for country folks and home to the Southern Gospel Music Association - has replaced its Southern Gospel Jubilee (aka Harvest Fest) with a big-tent event called the Harvest and Music Fest: “The Smoky Mountain’s Largest Fall Celebration”? Yup (hat tip, LS). Instead of several sg groups singing in the park every day of the month-long Jubilee, there will now be one sg group (in addition, I assume, to the Kingdom Heirs, the park’s in-house sg quartet), one bluegrass group, and one “Americana” group (no indication I can find as to whether these latter two will be explicitly gospel acts or not, but I assume not). Last year three sg groups sang in addition to Kingdom Heirs, as I understand it. In years prior, many of the Dollywood theaters were filled with sg acts (wasn’t there one year when several country Opry stars sang gospel songs during the month as well?). No longer. (For a list of the non-gospel acts on the roster, go to pollstar.com and search for Dollywood.)It’s not clear to me what brought about the change, but a good first place to look would be at attendance, or lack of it (attendance, in turn, could have been related to the underwhelming artists on the lineup in years past … i.e. the Galloways and Safe Harbor, groups that simply don’t have enough drawing power to hold down an event at a place like Dollywood). Certainly one could pretty easily surmise the rechristening of the festival is part of a larger effort to attract more mainstream visitors and staunch any flagging ticket sales in recent years. If that’s the case, it’s hard not to appreciate the financial logic there, though it will be interesting to see if the makeover attracts enough non-sg fans to make up for the inevitable loss of core sg devotees who won’t attend the festival now that it’s widened its scope. No matter, from a strictly sg point of view, this isn’t exactly good news, since there weren’t that many month-long festivals devoted primarily to sg to begin with (are/were there any others at all?). As one reader pointed out to me, the clout that came from Dolly Parton’s investment in a month’s worth of sg-themed programming was incalculable both within and beyond the industry. In addition to the positive press that Dollywood’s festival generated for sg, Parton herself, by all accounts, has a genuine affection for the music (and reportedly, so do the Herschends, co-owners of DW). To lose an exclusive event like this hurts for sure.

On top of all this there are the changes at SGMA. Nevermind the SGMA gift shop, which - as I understand it - relied heavily on the Jubilee to boost its sales. The real question mark is Charlie Waller’s recent arrival as SGMA executive director. In general, it’s hard to hear a bad word spoken about the guy, who is among the more prominent promoters in sg today. But underneath all the happy-facing I have picked up some concern here and there that his tenure at SGMA will inaugurate a traditionalist slant in the museum exhibits and curatorial vision of the association, meaning a primary focus on male quartets at the expense of trios, mixed groups, soloists, etc. Obviously, I hope this turns out to be untrue, since such an officially myopic view of sg as an industry and an artistic tradition would not only further narrow the reach of the music in the present and distort its legacy in the future, but would also reinforce the impression of sg as a withering clique of wagon circlers. If there were any actually reporters at the two major sg “news” outlets, they’d be all over this, as this is the kind of development that opens on to several related issues that are central to the state of the industry and the long-term viability of the music. But of course it’s probably too much to ask the SN or sogospelnews to … ya know … cover this issue properly … ask some tough questions, heck ask any questions at all, maybe call up some of the Dollywood principles involved in the programming changes and see what their take is on it. Or call up Waller ask him what he thinks about the impact of losing the Jubilee. Did DW consult SGMA about the changes? Did SGMA fight the changes or support them? But none of that’s not likely to happen, alas … After all, we wouldn’t want to get in the way of bidness, now would we?

Dolly Parton is a Goddess

Avery — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 20:59:00 +0000

When I was a kid, I committed the album Love Songs to memory and badgered my parents to let me stay up late to see every finale of the CMA Awards ceremony because the Queen of Country, Dolly Parton, was always the designated closer. And for good reason. She is an unrivalled songwriter, an electrifyingly charismatic performer, and one of a handful of celebrities who seems to make friends with the most disparate and antipathetic people and be the more popular for it. I know of no other performer and pop cultural icon who could, in the same month, advertise in the Singing News (probably one of the more culturally conservative publications out there) and the Advocate (the gay People Magazine). Another way to illustrate this: on one hand, there’s Dollywood – Dolly Parton’s ultra-savvy, uber-country, down-home entertainment park (where, of course, the Kingdom Heirs, perform almost daily), geared primarily, though not exclusively, toward the traditional values crowd. On the other hand, there’s Dolly’s conspicuous efforts to “love everybody,” as she puts it so often – and unlike so many other people who toss off lines like that, she seems to mean it with uncommon sincerity. This would probably drive hard-core fundamentalists insane, but I’m not sure Dolly’s progressive tendencies are that widely known (yet): for instance, most of the folks over at the sogospelnews forums seemed genuinely shocked to discover that some gay Dolly fans were trying to organize a group event at Dollywood. If that shocked them, they’d be apoplectic to know she goes out of her way to reach out to gays and lesbians: In addition to advertising in the Advocate, Parton recently recorded a live performance with Melissa Etheridge. When Etheridge asked Parton if she supported same-sex marriage, Parton replied with typical aplomb: “Hell, yes. They ought to have to suffer like the rest of us.” That coat of many rainbow colors from her childhood was downright prescient, it seems.

Rediscovered (an occasional aria on some forgotten favorite)

Avery — Sun, 01 Aug 2004 17:50:32 +0000

aka Speaking of Dolly Parton: Ten or fifteen years ago during a CMA awards show, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette performed a song together. It was mostly forgettable but for a moment about half-way through the song when Loretta Lynn stomped all over Dolly Parton’s lines, taking the lead in a verse that was obviously rehearsed as a Dolly Parton solo. Lynn, mortified by her error, stopped singing entirely for a second when she realized what she’d done and glanced at Dolly with a mixture of sickness and embarrassment. But Dolly just kept tapping her foot and swinging her hips. She winked at Lynn, laughed a little and said something to the effect of “That’s alright, Loretta … if you wanna sing it, let’s just do a duet ….” And on they went. In Dolly’s capable hands, the gaffe (or, more accurately, Dolly’s handling of it) made the performance better by lending it personality, an authenticating moment in which we could glimpse not just one star’s imperfections, but also another master performer at complete ease with her craft and herself (this is the rare ability to be disarmingly self-confident). Aside from being a lesson in stagecraft, that CMA moment points up Dolly’s inimitable complementarity as a performer, a songwriter and, most of all, as a vocalist. The best recording I can think of to illustrate what I mean is “The Pain of Loving You,” the first song on the first Trio project that Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and Dolly recorded in 1987. The track is transporting, mostly for Dolly’s high harmony, which floats above the lead and alto – not quite striving against the lower voicing but rising above it, like a balloon floating toward transcendence, tethered to Ronstadt’s and Harris’s earthbound notes by the finest of harmonic essences. It’s no coincidence of course that Dolly wrote the song. A Dolly Parton song, if it’s a good one (and almost all of them are, more or less), bears the marks of her pitch-perfect ear and sensitivity to a song’s dramatic trajectory. In Dolly’s finest songs, of which “The Pain of Loving You” is clearly one, there is a moment of grace (in “The Pain,” this moment comes most purely in the chorus during the phrasing of the word “knowing”) – a carefully calibrated and pristinely delivered convergence of lyric and harmony that dissolves tonal distinctions and merges disparate voices into a unifying experience of beauty and, for me at least, redemption.