Dolly Parton Celebrates Her Musical Lineage on ‘Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA-Family, Faith, and Fables’
Grant Britt
Posted On November 13, 2024
It might not show up on astrology maps, but there’s a solar system out there with Dolly Parton’s name on it. Everybody knows who the star is, but who is drawn into her orbit, family-wise, has been a bit fuzzy until now. With the release of Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA-Family, Faith, and Fables, the solar system map comes into focus. The project spans five generations of the Parton-Owens family featuring cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews who team up with Dolly to re-create some of her biggest hits and dust off some stuff hidden in the family vaults. Its a whopping project: a thirty-six songs and a three-CD package.
In the spoken word intro, Parton recounts how the music of her family stretches back into the forests of England. But since nobody from those days is still around, Parton relies instead on family members to tell her musical biography. Cousin Richie Owens produced the project, which Dolly first discussed with him a couple of years ago, utilizing some of the fifty year old archival material Owens had been compiling. She not only wanted to resurrect voices from the family past but be able to duet with them in the present, inviting any musical family members to participate.
Coloring outside her usual lines, Parton’s “Not Bad” is a hard-rockin’ blooze backed by greasy slide. Parton originally wrote it for her 1998 album Hungry Again, but Decca Records —her label at the time—had a different vision for marketing, and Parton didn’t include it on the release. This redo, recorded with cousin Shelley Rená, turns both ladies into rockin’ queens: “It’s not bad /To do things you wanna do/And it’s good to know dreams do come true,” Rena proclaims. Dolly responds “they do!” breathlessly on the outro.
Grooms’ Tune” features a valuable family relic. Parton’s grandfather, the Reverend Jake Owens, acquired the fiddle belonging to Henry Grooms, the protagonist of the tune once called “Bonaparte’s Retreat,” played as an in-your-face response, before being executed by Confederate irregulars.
Originally recorded in 1967 by Reverend Jake Owens in Parton’s hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee, “I’ll Live in Glory” sounds like something recorded on the front porch of somebody’s general store in a mountain holler. To its rough and scratchy high praises for a final journey, Parton adds harmony.
“My Tennessee Mountain Home” is probably the best known of the tracks, and one of Parton’s signature songs. From the album of the same name released in 1973, the autobiographical cut became the theme song for her themepark, Dollywood. A wagonload of family jumps in on this one, including help from Richie Owens on acoustic guitar, adding a 2024 backing instrumental track to vocals from a 1980s version of the song by Dolly.
Dolly fans will welcome Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA-Family, Faith, and Fables as a valued part of their collection. And with a wide swath of styles and Parton’s revelatory exploration of her own history, it’s a strong draw for younger Americana audiences as well.
Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA-Family, Faith, and Fables is out Nov. 15 on Virgin Music Group/Owepar Entertainment.
