With the recent passing of music legend Dolly Parton, it\u2019s sometimes difficult to comprehend that Hello, I\u2019m Dolly<\/i>, her 1967 solo debut, is almost 60 years old. It\u2019s also difficult to wrap one\u2019s mind around the fact that she was only 21 when this was initially released, with some of the songs recorded when she was as young as her late teens.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also a challenge to not listen to this without having the fact that Parton recently died at the age of 80 cloud the experience, or make one want to treat it with kid gloves. So, with a clean mental slate, we dive into its 12 tracks.<\/p>\n
All but two of the songs are, at the least, co-written by Parton \u2013 again, an impressive fact on paper. But, it\u2019s interesting to note that the strongest songs are among those that Parton co-wrote with Bill Owens, who was her uncle. Whether Owens was a seasoned veteran or not, he did seem to be an anchor in terms of the songwriting, as tracks such as \u201cPut It Off Until Tomorrow,\u201d \u201cI Wasted My Tears\u201d and \u201cFuel To The Flame\u201d help to showcase the raw but developing talent that was Parton.<\/p>\n
When she took the reins without any additional help, Parton\u2019s output stumbled a little bit. \u201cYour Ole Handy Man\u201d is a decent enough effort, but \u201cSomething Fishy\u201d is, honestly, a little sophomoric. (And, no\u2026 I\u2019m not blind to the fact that it was her first Top 20 hit on the Billboard<\/i> Hot Country Songs charts. I still think it\u2019s too silly.) Fortunately for Parton, \u201cI\u2019m In No Condition\u201d reaffirms her solo songwriting skills.<\/p>\n
What might be the best known track on Hello, I\u2019m Dolly<\/i> is one she didn\u2019t even write, but might have been the summary of who she would become in the history books. \u201cDumb Blonde\u201d quickly puts the stereotype of the song\u2019s subject into question, and, through the music and words of Curly Putman, proves she was more than the iconic hair. Funny thing, though, is it\u2019s not the strongest track on the disc.<\/p>\n
Like a lot of country music from this period of time, the overall sound still had a lot of influence from popular music flowing in its veins. So, while Hello, I\u2019m Dolly<\/i> is most certainly a country music album, the sound almost offers concrete proof early on that Parton would eventually rightfully earn a place in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (though the sound also cannot be labeled rock, per se).<\/p>\n
Hello, I\u2019m Dolly<\/i> proves to be an enjoyable, if somewhat tentative, first step for Parton. I can\u2019t say I\u2019d honestly find myself going back to this one as often as I might with her later albums, but, at just over 28 minutes, it\u2019s a nice palate cleaner, as well as a fairly interesting first picture of the artist before she achieved superstardom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6780],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-53412","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dolly-parton","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/53412","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/53412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53412"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=53412"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=53412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}