Dolly Parton - Boulder to Birmingham
Sorry, I'm late again, but I was out shopping for ice cream cones and they had the cookie dipped ones on sale. I hope the lady behind me doesn't mind that I bought the last 77 boxes of them, even though the kid next to her in the wheelchair seemed a little upset. OK, a lot upset.
So now that I'm settled into a really pleasant diabetic coma (dancing pink lemonade elephants and everything), it's time to take stock of the calendar and WHAT? It's Nine Two Five. What a way to make a living!!
All jokes aside, we all know what happened exactly a month ago, and this is the first 9/25 without her down here making everyone feel included.
See, me and this Queen go way, way back. Back to about 1973 or so, when 7 year old Joshy would gear up in his purple Lidsville pajamas for the greatest single hour of American television ever to taste air.
Because Saturday mornings -- after we got the Underdog, Magilla Gorilla and Schoolhouse Rock premiere jams outta the way -- it was time for Porter Wagoner. To be followed by -- and if the WOR-TV programming executive who decided to put these back-to-back is somehow reading this, you are like a living, walking god to me -- Don Cornelius and the Soul Train pulling into the station.
Now I loved Hee-Haw, don't get me wrong. How could you not love Buck Owens and Roy Clark, guitar duetting at speeds that would make Paganini retire to become a fruit salesman?
But Porter Wagoner -- he of The Rubber Room and other demented Country classics I'd discover later in life -- was just another level of pickin' and sangin', come on now people. Especially if you're 7 and the rest of your Saturday is begging to stay up past your bedtime to watch SNL, which somehow won't even premiere for another two years. And catching up on some Spider Man. Back when Spider Man was one of the real ones, and not this Marvel Universe preteen pabulum they feed us these days. Like we really need to watch people with perfect skin and competent Hollywood agents prance around in front of a green screen for two hours, like John Ford or Pier Pasolini would approve of that as cinema.
So yeah, I digress, but.... Porter Wagoner. That guy could rock a Nudie jacket in ways that would make Gram Parsons himself question if he was Country enough. And Porter had a secret weapon that was, when you drilled down into the dynamics, the star of the show.
Those two would get into Dark End of the Street or some cheatin' song like that, and young Joshy would sit there unsure if he wanted to grow up and endure puberty at all, just to get left at home holding the remote whilst his love interest "visited a sick friend". OK, remote controls weren't invented yet either, but work with me, will you? Most of my time is spent making 700 songs a day the same volume by hand, so I'm way on the Cut In Half By The Trap Trying To Acquire The Cheese side of mouseclick Hell over here, folks.
And this ain't a hay bale made of sawdust compared to when she'd mesmerize my miniature mind with a solo song or five. I might have been watching the day she first sang Jolene, and spent the rest of the day asking mommy if daddy was gonna run off with the lady at the deli counter, just because they can. Only later did I discover that dear old dad was a lot more likely to be looking at the guy making the sandwiches, but that's a mixtape for another moment kids.
Yep, me and this beloved Queen -- possibly the only human being in global culture I can think of whom people across all political, social and cultural spectra adored -- go way back. When she passed I cried, full disclosure because I can remember loving her back when I had a Banana Splits lunchbox, for Chrissakes. And you know what? If she had never made a record, been in movies or built amusement park monuments where you could Tennessee for Miles, just the philanthropic stuff she did making sure kids all over the US had books upon books to read makes her untouchable in my world.
There are very few Dolly Parton -- you didn't think I was talking about Taylor Swift, did you? -- ROIOs for some strange reason; for instance there are no Silver Eagle Network FMs of her for whatever error of omission. But when she left the realm in August I started making this epic mixtape of her tackling other people's songs, that told the story through conspicuously curated covers. It took a minute, but me and the in-laws demo'ed it on a drive up and down the Oregon Coast last week and we all agreed it's a serious keeper.
Dolly Parton
Cover Girl
Dolly Sings Songwriters
1967-2023
CD1
01 Travelin' Prayer (1999)
02 What's Up (w.Linda Perry 2023)
03 If (2002)
04 Don't Think Twice (2014)
05 The Dark End of the Street (w.Porter Wagoner 1968)
06 Put a Little Love In Your Heart (1993)
07 (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher (1977)
08 After the Gold Rush (2004)
09 Before the Next Teardrop Falls (w.David Hidalgo 1996)
10 Chicken Every Sunday (1971)
11 Love Is Strange (w.Kenny Rogers 1990)
12 Farther Along (1996)
13 Ballad of the Green Beret (2003)
14 In the Ghetto (1969)
15 Big Wind (1969)
16 Drives Me Crazy (2008)
17 Crimson and Clover (2005)
18 I Get a Kick Out of You (2001)
19 Great Balls of Fire (1979)
20 Lay Your Hands On Me (2014)
CD2
21 Something's Burning (1996)
22 Boulder to Birmingham (1976)
23 Harper Valley P.T.A. (1969)
24 Highway Headin’ South (1974)
25 Once In a Very Blue Moon (1985)
26 My Girl (My Love) (1977)
27 D.I.V.O.R.C.E. (1969)
28 Grey Funnel Line (w.Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt (1986)
29 Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos) (1980)
30 I’ve Lived My Life (1967)
31 If I Were a Carpenter (w.Joe Nichols 2005)
32 In the Pines (1994)
33 Life’s Like Poetry (1976)
34 Seven Bridges Road (2001)
35 Help! (1979)
36 It's My Time (1969)
37 I Still Miss Someone (1999)
38 Send Me the Pillow That You Dream On (1983)
39 Lovin' You (1977)
40 Single Women (1982)
41 Dark As a Dungeon (1980)
CD3
42 Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (2023)
43 Games People Play (1969)
44 How Great Thou Art (1971)
45 He's Alive (1989)
46 Peace Train (w.Ladysmith Black Mambazo 1996)
47 Somewhere Between (w.Porter Wagoner 1968)
48 Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8) (1971)
49 The Carroll County Accident (1969)
50 Detroit City (1980)
51 Where Do the Children Play (2005)
52 Heartbreaker (1978)
53 Tall Man (1970)
54 I Wish I Felt This Way At Home (1968)
55 I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know (w.Tammy Wynette & Loretta Lynn 1993)
56 Release Me (1982)
57 You Gotta Be My Baby (1994)
58 Time for Me to Fly (1989)
59 The Great Pretender (1984)
60 Sweet Music Man (1977)
61 The Last Thing On My Mind (w.Porter Wagoner 1967)
62 I Believe (1971)
63 Jesus & Gravity (2008)
CD4
64 Where Have All the Flowers Gone (2005)
65 Knockin' On Heaven's Door (w.Ladysmith Black Mambazo 1997)
66 Shine (2001)
67 Two Lovers (1987)
68 What Ain’t to Be, Just Might Happen (1972)
69 Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season) (1984)
70 Cowgirl and the Dandy (1977)
71 Sittin' On the Front Porch Swing (w.Tammy Wynette & Loretta Lynn 1993)
72 Pretty Paper (w.Willie Nelson 2020)
73 Just When I Needed You Most (w.Alison Krauss & John Sebastian 1996)
74 Night Moves (w.Chris Stapleton 2023)
75 You’ll Always Be Special to Me (1975)
76 Everyday People (1980)
77 Stairway to Heaven (2002)
78 Blowin’ In the Wind (2005)
79 Calling My Children Home (w.Emmyou Harris & Linda Ronstadt 1986)
80 Imagine (2005)
Total time: 4:32:14
compendium of songs normally associated with other artists and songwriters, as covered by Dolly Parton
selected, assembled and remastered for unity by EN, August 2026
1.65 GB FLAC/direct link
1.65 GB FLAC/direct link
I'm gonna have one more for September as I get back on the beam here after taking the summer off to get my Masters in In Over Your Head Home Ownership. But do enjoy the burgeoning weekend with 80 (her age when she died) career-spanning Dolly Parton reframings of a whole lotta songs from a whole lotta artists, some of whom (Stairway to Heaven?) might surprise your eyes and ears, OK? I takes a lot of money to look this cheap, as Dolly -- really an underrated musician in some ways, for someone so famous for music, and oh so very skilled at using removing a disguise to achieve all the anonymity she needed for those cross-country camper voyages with her hubby -- loved to say.--J.
1.19.1946 - 8.25.2026
I will always love you