Consider it or not, I used to be already studying this e book earlier than we obtained the unhappy information of Dolly Parton’s passing final week. It was certainly one of a number of books I had going directly, so I hadn’t picked it up shortly. Nevertheless it appeared applicable to convey it again to the highest of the pile now.
Hamessley’s e book is strongest when it finds the connections between Dolly’s gracious and giving spirit and her greatness as an artist.
We’ve been awash in tales of Dolly’s large coronary heart for the previous few days. (As Lydia R. Hamessley factors out early in Dolly Parton’s Jolene, you merely can’t confer with her simply by her final identify: “It’s, in any case, Dollywood, not Partonwood, and her first-name-only curly signature adorns her mild pink stationery with an off-the-cuff flourish.”) However as this e book reminds us, earlier than we knew about her kindness and generosity, we knew her music. And her music was good. These catchy, bouncy tunes had been drawn from a bottomless effectively of expertise, creativity, and deep musical data.
The opposite day, somebody in my feed was joking about what number of karaoke singers she’s seen launch confidently into “Jolene,” solely to get a “What have I finished?” look on their faces a couple of bars in. It was a part of Dolly’s reward, each as a singer and a songwriter, to make her songs sound easy—but they had been something however. There’s a motive her “Jolene” has an entry within the Oxford Keynotes collection of books, a lot of which is devoted to the likes of Beethoven, Debussy, and Prokofiev.
Hamessley, a professor of music at Hamilton Faculty, delves into the harmonic components and “rhythmic complexity” of the music—the opening guitar lick alone will get six pages of research—observing that Dolly’s “musical selections convey the music’s anxious high quality and ambiguity.” Hamessley additionally spends loads of time dissecting the lyrics, with their poignant story of a determined lady pleading along with her rival. “The music is, in a way, unfinished. … I imagine the music’s ambiguity is on the root of its energy,” Hamessley writes.
This emphasis on the ambiguous provides a clue as to why the music haunts us so. We all know so little, in any case, concerning the narrator, her man, and the opposite lady whom she fears. There’s room for our creativeness to fill within the gaps, drawing on our personal fears, concepts, and recollections.
That’s additionally why there have been so many alternative takes on and reactions to the music through the years, from Dolly’s personal totally different variations to the covers and “reply songs” by different singers and bands (a few of whom she collaborated with). It’s undoubtably satisfying to find follow-ups like Chapel Hart’s “You Can Have Him Jolene.” However after some time this part will get just a little into the weeds. As Hamessley has demonstrated, there’s rather a lot you may say about “Jolene” itself, however you may spend solely a lot time finding out the responses, enjoyable and fascinating as a few of them are, earlier than a reader begins longing to get again to the unique.
However all of them—the unique, the covers, the responses, and extra—can be found to take heed to on the e book’s companion web site. (Word that the URL given within the e book doesn’t work now, or at the least it didn’t after I tried it; you should utilize this one as an alternative.) To listen to “Jolene” amidst the entire musical world surrounding it enriches the expertise of studying the e book and creates contemporary appreciation for the genius of Dolly’s seemingly easy music.
It additionally reminds us of Dolly’s means to cross obstacles between musical genres, all of the whereas staying true to herself and her imaginative and prescient. Although we regularly neglect it, these obstacles may very well be as porous fifty years in the past as they’re immediately. Hamessley recounts what occurred when Olivia Newton-John received Feminine Vocalist of the 12 months on the Nation Music Affiliation Awards in 1974, beating out the likes of Loretta Lynn and, sure, Dolly Parton. Outraged at this victory for a pop artist, a few of nation’s largest stars began the Affiliation of Nation Entertainers (ACE) to attempt to protect nation’s authenticity.
Dolly turned a member of the group. However on the identical time she struck up a friendship with Newton-John, supported her brazenly when it will have been simple to be jealous of the then-much greater star, and was impressed by her to strive branching out into pop. When Newton-John made her personal recording of “Jolene” as a manner of thanking her, Dolly praised her model, loved the increase it gave the music, and, many years later, dueted along with her on “Jolene” on Newton-John’s last album.
That was Dolly. And this e book, like so lots of the tributes written each earlier than and after her demise, is strongest when it finds the connections between her gracious and giving spirit and her greatness as an artist.
This assessment was initially printed on Pricey, Unusual Issues on August 30, 2026. Republished right here with the creator’s permission.
