Like many people, I have become a Zoom aficionado as of late. I’ve also downloaded Netflix Party Chrome extensions and tried to master Marco Polo. But with little news to discuss even when we get to see each other’s faces online, my friends and I have needed to get creative. Since it’s faster to access podcasts online or via Alexa than order hard copies of books right now, we decided to start a podcast club. I was never much of a big podcast person pre-pandemic, so I’ve really enjoyed the audio worlds my friends have suggested, like Sporkful, My Favorite Murder, and Mobituaries. But no podcast has rocked my world this month like the stellar 2019 release Dolly Parton’s America.
You might think the title is a bit overstated (I did, at first), but you’d be wrong. This is Dolly Parton’s world, and we are just lucky to live in it. Throughout the series, Parton is referred to as the Dolly Lama or Saint Dolly, monikers that seem entirely appropriate after you listen. The nine-part WNYC series (available on Stitcher, Spotify, and Apple) is hosted by Jad Abumrad, and produced and reported by Shima Oliaee. Abumrad’s father, a doctor in Tennessee, became friends with Dolly Parton after treating her for injuries following a 2013 car crash (Parton becoming friends with practically everyone she comes in contact with is a theme throughout the series), and Abumrad asked her to see if she’d be up for being a podcast subject.
The sad part is, I already considered myself a fan going in to Dolly Parton’s America. I watch Steel Magnolias at least once a year and have mangled “Jolene” a few times at karaoke. But I was a fool. I knew nothing. Fortunately, the series helps fills in any gapes in Dolly Parton’s history straightaway, as the first episode, “Sad Ass Songs,” describes the devastating compositions that were part of her early career. Her discography dates back 50 years, and Parton’s first four albums, based on the mountain songs and murder ballads of her Tennessee youth, contain “an ocean of pain,” says Abumrad, featuring asylums and stillborn children.
You may not know some of those, but you’re bound to recognize the subject of the second episode, “And I Will Always Leave You,” which describes how Parton was inspired to pen her best-known song. It was actually the greatest resignation letter of all time, written for Porter Wagoner when she wanted to leave her role as sidekick on his variety show to start her own career in earnest. “He didn’t know how many dreams I had,” Parton tells Abumrad.
Sometimes the series uses Dolly Parton as a springboard, placing her career in larger historical context to explore what it means to be Southern, for example, or the origins of the word “hillbilly.” Or her songs’ reverberating impact: The “Dollitics” episode explores how the theme song Parton wrote for the 1980 movie 9 To 5, in which she also starred, “captured the entire working women’s movement,” according to co-star Jane Fonda. The episode devoted to “Jolene” reveals that it was one of Nelson Mandela’s favorite songs to listen to in prison. Parton proclaims that she is a very spiritual person, but not an overtly religious one, carving out her own very particular feelings about faith in the series’ stirring final episode.
Overall, it’s an amazing deep dive into the life of an extraordinary person, but it’s the lessons from Dolly Parton’s career that are sticking with me most. Even with various tough times she’s had, Dolly Parton has always believed in herself with a steel-like intensity, carving out a career as not just a legendary musician, but also a businessperson, philanthropist, and, yes, amusement park owner (Her Dollywood Foundation Imagination Library now gives a book a month to over a million children). As she told University Of Tennessee graduates during her 2009 commencement address, “If I had one wish for you, it’s that you would learn to dream more.” She’s an amazing example of the impact one life can have, and during a time when most of us are starved for inspiration, Dolly Parton’s America can make for a much-needed, soul-soothing listen.
21 Comments
Hot take. The Dolly Parton version of I Will Always Love You is better then Whitney Houstons version. It has more soul compared to being bombastic.
Hot take, or just the only correct take? Houston’s version is very good, don’t get me wrong, but if I hear Dolly’s version and I’m not properly prepared, my eyes might leak. From allergies, of course.
I like to think its the correct take. The kids nowadays think Whitney wrote it. Its a good version but it doesn’t make my heart skip a beat a little like Dolly does.
It would be idiotic to knock Houston’s vocal abilities, but Dolly wrote that song for a deeply personal reason and it comes through in every word. She seems like one of the most genuine people in entertainment, and stands out in a country music scene that today is to often just pop with a twang.
Thats giving modern Country still too much credit. Its just pop. Full stop.
That’s not a take, it’s just the truth.
Three chords and the truth???
I didn’t realize this was a hot take. I thought it was conventional wisdom.
Not a hot take at all. My wife never knew she had written the song, when I played her the original version she was bawling by the end.
The podcast was great but it made clear that Dolly will always side with the abuser over the abused, even when she is the abused.
Dolly has grit, class and intelligence. I don’t always love her music but she is undoubtedly an American icon forever.
Shes hard to hate. Which when compared to Country now… ehhhhhhh… yeah I’ll gladly spend more time with Dolly then Luke Bryant, Sam Hunt or Florida Georgia Line. God…
That last act should have just gone ahead and called their band Floribama and gotten it over with.
You mean it wasn’t just the remnants of Alabama brought to life with dude bros and beer?
Entirely possible. Country’s an incestuous business.
Your not entirely wrong. I adore the Carter Family but AP married Sarah Doherty and his brother Eck married Sarah’s cousin Maybelle. That’s the founding family of Country Music, oh West Virginia.
I wanted to like this podcast more than I did. I did really like the Dolitics episode and there were a few I enjoyed but there were so many things that frustrated me. In one episode Jad talks about how in one interview Dolly talked for a long time on her childhood and then after about 20 seconds fades her out and one of his coworkers/producers or something tells a story about herself instead? I’d rather hear Dolly. Stuff like that bothered me throughout. I think I’m just not a huge fan of Jad’s style. But if it makes people appreciate Dolly more that’s good.
So it’s basically Radiolab?
I’ve never actually listened to Radiolab but I have listened to More Perfect and again that’s one that I’ve liked but had issues with and so I’ve realized Jad just isn’t my fave.
Such a great series. I need to go back and listen to it again!
“Like many people, I have become a Zoom aficionado as of late. I’ve also downloaded Netflix Party Chrome extensions and tried to master Marco Polo.”LOL