Americana Music is deeply rooted in Country. Ask most Americana Artists today and Dolly makes their list of influences in their writing. This woman has done so much for the genre as a songwriter, musician, and performer. She’s done even more as a businesswoman and philanthropist. Hope you enjoy this Americana hero’s story with some pretty cool amazing highlights from this legend.

Just northeast of the Smoky Mountain’s Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in a tiny town called Locust Ridge, a songwriter was born who would forever change the face of Country Music¹¹. Born in 1946, the forth of twelve children, her grandfather was a fiddling preacher and her mother a singer that introduced her to music¹². With her first guitar at the age of eight, she began singing and writing her way onto local radio and television by the age of ten. By the age thirteen she made her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry¹³.

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you got to put up with the rain.”

Dolly Parton

Her Appalachian influenced sound and storytelling talents landed her a full length solo album that released shortly after the singer turned 21, called, Hello, I’m Dolly. The album peaked at number 11 with two singles that broke top forty status as number 17 and 24, a huge accomplishment for the then unknown artist. It garnered enough attention that Porter Wagoner heard her and hired her to be on his show.¹

the Porter Wagoner SHOW

Although it took the Porter Wagoner Show’s audience a little time to warm up to the then brand new singer, it wasn’t long before Dolly was signed to RCA records, Porter’s label. The two then became a powerhouse duo with their first single covering Tom Paxton’s “The Last Thing on My Mind”, winning over fans to the number ten position on the country charts in 1968. By the early 1970’s Dolly had begun putting out solo smash hits like “Coat of Many Colors” and “Jolene”¹⁴

Feeling that it was time to branch out on her own, Dolly needed to tell Porter Wagoner, who didn’t want her to leave, it was time for her to go. She had promised to be on the show for five years, and had already more than fulfilled that promise being there for seven. Parton decided the only way leave, was to do what she does best, write a song.¹⁵ That song became arguably Dolly’s biggest hit of her career. “I Will Always Love You” spent the week of Jun 8th, 1974 at number one on the Billboard’s Hot Country Charts and then again the week of Oct. 16, 1982.¹⁷

dolly’s career skyrockets

Dolly Parton’s music career continued to explode with over 100 million records sold to date.¹⁸ In 1983, Parton and Kenny Rogers’s single “Islands in the Stream” hung around the number one spot for two weeks on both Billboard’s Hot 100 and Hot Country Songs charts. The song was initially being recorded as a single by Kenny Rogers, who was struggling with the song. Kenny’s producer suggested putting Dolly Parton on the song, who just happened to be recording at the same studio that day. Once Dolly laid down vocals, the song took on another life to become the hit people know today.²⁰ In 1987, Dolly, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt formed the band Trio. On Warner Brothers Nashville Label, the band’s first single, “To Know Him is to Love Him” reached number one on the charts.¹⁹ Their follow up album, Trio II, with it’s remake of Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” found it’s way to winning the 1999 GRAMMY award of Best Country Collaboration with Vocals.²¹

2nd act: Dolly in the movies

Co-staring with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, Dolly started her movie career out with the blockbuster hit, “9 to 5”.²² While filming the movie, Dolly wrote the song “9 to 5”, tapping out the rhythm on her acrylic nails. That tapping out of the song on her acrylic nails also made it to the recording of the song.²³ Nine years later, in 1989, Dolly was an integral part of the all star cast for the movie classic, “Steel Magnolias”, which won People’s Choice Award for Favorite Dramatic Movie.²⁴

“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”

Dolly Parton

dolly’s songs covered by other artists

Dolly’s songs have been performed by multiple recording artists. Last year Sierra Ferrell covered “Coat of Many Colors”, bringing 90,000 + viewers to her youtube.²⁵ When Witney Houston recorded and released “I Will Always Love You”, the single spent 14 weeks at number one on Billboard Hot 100’s chart and “remains the best-selling single by a woman in music history”¹⁶. Currently, Whitney’s version of Dolly’s song has 1.6 billion views on YouTube. Dolly’s “Jolene” has been covered by both Mindy Smith (with Dolly singing background) and most recently Beyoncé whose lyrical changes were met with appreciation by some and criticism by traditionalists. Beyoncé’s video version released only 3 months ago, has already garnered 1.1 million + YouTube views as of today.

Dolly’s philanthropy: giving millions to charity

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library was started in 1995. With the mission of creating a way for children to fall in love with books, children from age zero to five can receive a free book by mail. Her father’s illiteracy served as the inspiration that eventually expanded the charity from her home of Sevierville County to across the United States, then to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, and Canada. Over 200 million books have been gifted globally to date.⁶

Dolly Parton Center for Women’s Services at LeConte Medical Center funding was raised in part by donations of $500,000 from both Dolly Parton’s Stampede and the Dollywood Foundation. An additional $500,00 was raised through a benefit concert Dolly performed at the Smokies.⁸

The Dolly Parton Scholarship of fifteen thousand dollars is awarded to one student at each of the five high schools in Sevierville County. Students receive the scholarship by communicating their goals, with proceeds funding their education at an accredited college⁷.

The My People Fund, established by the Dollywood Foundation, was created two days after wildfires swept through Sevierville County in November of 2016. According to Dolly Parton’s website, the My People Fund, which in addition received outside donations, 8.9 million dollars went directly to wildfire victims. Families of Sevierville County received a thousand dollars a month for six months, including an extra four thousand dollars the final month, due to the outpouring of support. A partnership with the Mountain Tough Recovery team was launched providing an extra three million dollars in support.⁷

During the early stages of the CoVID epidemic, when the world was scrambling to learn more about the disease, Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced that Dolly had given one million dollars “in honor of her longtime friend, Naji Abumrad, MD.”³ As a result in part, of the research at Vanderbilt the Moderna CoVID Vaccine was developed, and Parton was credited for her donation to Vanderbilt by The New England Journal of Medicine.⁴ Two years later, Dolly Parton gave one million dollars again to Vanderbilt, this time to help fight pediatric infectious disease.⁵

These are just a few of the huge ways in which Dolly Parton has used her success to sew back into communities that have supported her and in those she has never known. In 2022, she received “The Courage and Civility Award” from Jeff Bezos⁹, and with that award came a $100 million dollar donation to be redistributed to charities of Dolly’s choice within a 10 year period.

Hello, I’m Dolly a broadway musical

Just announced at the CMA Fest and on her Instagram page she stated, “I’ve been writing my life story as a Broadway musical for several years and I’m proud to announce we are finally developing ‘Hello, I’m Dolly – An Original Musical’ for the Broadway stage.” Named after her first studio-recorded solo album, “Hello, I’m Dolly”, released February 13th, 1967¹, the musical’s lyrics and melody are written by the Queen of the smokies herself. According to Variety Magazine, the musical is set to open in 2026. This would be Dolly’s second musical, with the first being a Tony nominated adaptation of the film “9 to 5”.

Listen to Dolly Parton and other Legends of Americana and Artists You Should Know.

References:

1. Dolly Parton Website, Albums
2. https://variety.com/2024/music/news/dolly-parton-broadway-musical-hello-im-dolly-1236026791/
3. https://news.vumc.org/2020/04/02/dolly-parton-makes-generous-gift-to-advance-covid-19-research-at-vanderbilt/
4. https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/2020/11/17/dolly-parton-vaccine-funding-moderna-covid-19/6322836002/
5. https://www.today.com/health/health/dolly-parton-donates-1-million-pediatric-infectious-disease-research-rcna33714
6. https://dollyparton.com/imagination-library
7. https://imaginationlibrary.com/the-dollywood-foundation/
8. https://archive.knoxnews.com/business/dolly-parton-visits-new-sevier-co-hospital-ep-408964905-358918171.html/
9. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/16/dolly-parton-receives-100-million-dollar-award-from-jeff-bezos.html
10. https://www.billboard.com/lists/dolly-parton-good-deeds-timeline/2017-1-million-donation/
11. https://www.loc.gov/collections/dolly-parton-and-the-roots-of-country-music/articles-and-essays/locust-ridge-tennessee/
12. https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/hall-of-fame/dolly-parton
13. https://wams.nyhistory.org/end-of-the-twentieth-century/a-conservative-turn/dolly-parton/
14. https://americansongwriter.com/the-always-love-between-dolly-parton-and-porter-wagoner/
15. https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/12/26/dolly-parton-remembers-writing-always-love-you/77762172/
16. https://www.whitneyhouston.com/news/whitney-houston-i-will-always-love-you-1992/
17. https://www.billboard.com/lists/dolly-parton-top-songs-billboard-hot-country-songs/joshua-2/
18. https://dollyparton.com/my-music
19. https://dollyparton.com/album/trio-emmylou-harris-linda-ronstadt-collaberation-album
20. https://www.billboard.com/pro/rewinding-the-charts-in-1983-dolly-parton-kenny-rogers-sailed-to/
21. https://dollyparton.com/tag/trio-ii
22. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080319/
23. https://youtu.be/ZTLXYJGvhI4?si=CJwIQht-Jd9lhLiU
24. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098384/awards/
25. https://youtu.be/pUzQLLCrE1s?si=xfsVRjhjhHhIH5AC