It’s always a pleasure to hear an artist successfully reinvent
\nthemselves; to finally be doing exactly what they want, and have
\nthe joy in that show. Dolly Parton’s three CDs for Sugar Hill
\nRecords have accorded us the pleasure of doing just that. Dolly’s
\ndoing what she wants now, and the joy is plain in her voice and in
\nher demeanor. (She’s even having fun doing interviews. I died
\nlaughing at a two-year-old interview she did with British talk show
\nhost Graham Norton recently.)<\/p>\n
So, I guess it’s almost anticlimactic to say it, but Parton’s
\ndone it again. Her latest solo effort,
\nHalos And Horns<\/i>, may be the best thing she’s done yet.
\nConsistently brilliant, it is the work of a talented artist who can
\nfinally ignore the money and promotion people and play music.<\/p>\n
Production (which she did herself) is solid; the disc sounds
\nbright and clear, with a very uncluttered sound that supports the
\ngenre fully. The backing musicians, especially the fiddle of Jimmy
\nMattingly, are all very good.<\/p>\n
Once again, Parton has thrown on a couple of cover versions that
\none wouldn’t quite expect, in the spirit of her past versions of
\nCollective Soul and Billy Joel. Her version of the soft-rock
\nclassic “If” (originally recorded by Bread) is acceptable;
\ncertainly it’s no worse than the original, which is a rather
\ncliched piece of work. Where she really shines, though, is\u2026.
\n\u2026swear to gods, don’t laugh\u2026 “Stairway To
\nHeaven.”<\/p>\n
Yes, that’s what I said. “Stairway To Heaven.”<\/p>\n
And it WORKS, dammit. It works really really well.<\/p>\n
With the permission of Plant and Page, she has added a verse at
\nthe end that turns the AOR dinosaur into a passionate, rip-roaring,
\ntear-your-guts-out hymn. No longer a song about nothing in
\nparticular, Parton’s version of “Stairway” doesn’t meander up the
\nstairway; it storms up it, kicks the door down, roughs up St Peter,
\nand pleads to be admitted into the Presence. Whether or not you
\nshare her spiritual beliefs, the passion and faith in her voice is
\nnaked and powerful, and not to be missed.<\/p>\n
Other tracks of note include the mystical “These Old Bones”, the
\nfunny “I’m Gone”, and the bitter, angry “Dagger Through The Heart”.
\nParton plays a symphony of emotion on
\nHalos And Horns<\/i>, and nails them all to the wall. Don’t miss
\nthis one; it’s going to be a classic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6780],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37458","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dolly-parton","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37458"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37458"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}