VMP Magazine

When you talk with Dolly Parton superfans, many will tell you about discovering and imprinting upon her as a very young child. It makes sense. Dolly herself has said her look was inspired by the glamorous “town tramp” she first noticed as a child; her persona is a literal little girl’s dream come true. Per Dolly, the big blonde hair, gaudy makeup, sweeping decolletage, and glittering western wear that goes into her “Backwoods Barbie” identity is “a country girl’s idea of glam.” She knew from a young age she wanted to grow up to be the woman she is today. Alongside her devotion to artifice and glitz, there’s a genuineness, kindness, and nurturing aura about Dolly Parton that has made her one of the most well-loved celebrities in the world. As the lyrics to “Backwoods Barbie” say, “Don't let these false eyelashes lead you to believe that I'm as shallow as I look 'cause I run true and deep.”  

If Carl hadn’t asked, it wouldn’t have ever happened.Dolly Parton and her husband, Carl Dean, had been married — very happily — for a few months wh...

When I was six or so, anytime someone would ask what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would firmly respond, “I want to be a woman in a red dress.” My reply had nothing to do with the garment itself — it instead had everything to do with what the dress represented.

The turn of the millennium marked a period of change for Dolly Parton. Having bounced around various labels, like the now-defunct Rising Tide Records, during the ‘90s, Parton found a temporary home with famed bluegrass label Sugar Hill Records, a move that gave her a chance to revisit her earliest musical roots through a landmark trilogy of bluegrass and mountain music-inspired albums: 1999’s The Grass Is Blue, 2001’s Little Sparrow and 2002’s Halos & Horns. 

“No, I am not for your amusement,” Dolly Parton says with a wink on one of Blue Smoke’s deeper album cuts, the frothy “Lover Du Jour.” Ostensibly a rejoinder to some woefully unserious paramour, the quip could offer a clue as to why the iconic singer recorded the album — her 42nd — in the first place: because she wanted to. 

How do you begin to honor something as integral to your identity as the place where you grew up? Most folks from small towns or rural regions learn it’s often easier to describe your home in terms of what’s relatively close to it, rather than where you’re actually from. To save time or avoid confusion, it’s simpler to pick the nearest well-known city, geographical landmark or place that otherwise matters enough to exist in our common cultural lexicon. While less concerned with concision, Dolly Parton illustrates this habit while proudly describing her geographical roots in her first big interview with a major country music publication, Music City News, in 1967. 

If you sign up now for Vinyl Me, Parton, you’ll receive the first three Records of the Month — My Tennessee Mountain Home, Little Sparrow and Blue Smoke — in April, May and June 2023, which start the limited subscription off by highlighting Dolly Parton’s roots. Click here to learn more about Vinyl Me, Parton, and read on to find out more about these three albums.  

Vinyl Me, Please and Dolly Parton are excited to announce a first-of-its-kind monthly record club devoted to the legendary career and peerless catalog of Dolly Parton. Starting in April 2023, Vinyl Me, Parton will give Dolly Parton fans a monthly connection with her catalog on vinyl, with 12 Records of the Month spanning the entirety of Dolly’s recording career. Pre-order the subscription here and keep reading to learn more about Vinyl Me, Parton.