There’s been a lot written about Dolly Parton lately in the wake
\nof her Grammy win a couple of weeks ago. A lot of people are saying
\nParton has gotten back to her roots, rewritten herself, become
\nnewly relevant in defiance of the current sanitized and suburbified
\nface of country music.<\/p>\n
That may be so, but I admit to having had some misgivings
\nopening her newest CD,
\nLittle Sparrow<\/i>. See, she covers at least one rock tune on
\nit, and all I could think of was her execrable 1989 cover of REO
\nSpeedwagon’s “Time For Me To Fly”. (Sorry, Dolly, but it’s true.
\nThat was awful). However, my concerns were misplaced and misguided.
\nParton
\nhas<\/i> rediscovered her roots, and darned if this isn’t a
\npretty good CD.<\/p>\n
\nLittle Sparrow<\/i> is a collection of bluegrass, folk,
\nAppalachian, roots country, and other songs that I’m convinced were
\nchosen merely on the bases that Parton decided she liked ’em.
\n(There are worse criteria for choosing material. There’s nothing so
\npainful as to hear an artist sing a song they don’t much like.)
\nCovers include The Louvin Brothers “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My
\nBaby”, Cole Porter’s “I Get A Kick Out Of You”, Steve Young’s
\n“Seven Bridges Road” (most commonly remembered for the Eagles’
\nversion), and in a rather startling bluegrassification, Collective
\nSoul’s “Shine”. True, the track list looks like an explosion at a
\npublic access radio station, but you know, it works, in some places
\nstartlingly well.<\/p>\n
Of course, there’s also the fact that Parton hasn’t lost a lick
\non one of the most naturally gifted country voices in history.
\nExpressive, conversational, and versatile, it still sounds like it
\ndid in the days of “Jolene” and “Coat Of Many Colors”. Combine this
\nwith musicianship that never falls below good and in some places is
\ndownright joyous (including Alison Krauss and Chris Thile of Nickel
\nCreek), and you’ve got a pretty darn good CD.<\/p>\n
Some high points: the aforementioned “I Don’t Believe You’ve Met
\nMy Baby” and “Marry Me” are a quick shot of mountain espresso,
\ncheery and invigorating. The tribute to the late Bill Monroe,
\n“Bluer Pastures”, is wonderful and poignant. The Celtic-tinged
\n“Down From Dover” is heartbreaking in its simplicity, and maybe I’m
\na sentimental idiot, but I admit to having gotten a little sniffly
\nover it. The traditional “In The Sweet By And By” is given a
\nstraight reading, and Parton (with the help of Celtic band Altan)
\nnails it. And yes, before I keep you hanging any longer, Parton’s
\nversion of “Shine” is both a new interpretation of a great rock
\nsong and very, very good in its own right.<\/p>\n
There are a few miscues – I’m not sure what didn’t work for me
\nin “The Beautiful Lie” and “My Blue Tears”, but they didn’t grab me
\nas hard as the rest of the CD. Occasionally Steve Buckingham’s
\nproduction is a little shallow and dry, but that’s a minor problem
\nat best.<\/p>\n
I confess to not having heard Parton’s Grammy-winning
\nThe Grass Is Blue<\/i>. But if it’s anywhere near the quality of
\nLittle Sparrow<\/i>, then it’s easy to see why it should have
\nwon. (I’m not sure why it did win, but I’m not used to the Grammies
\nactually going to the best CD. It’s a bit of a shock.) Parton
\nherself says it best: “This is the music I would have been doing
\nall along, if I could’ve made a living at it”. Indeed. You may not
\nget rich singing like this, Dolly, but you’re enriching us and
\nAmerican music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":28044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6780],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39437","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dolly-parton","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39437","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=39437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39437"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}