"Dumb Blonde"

I was recently re-introduced to Dolly Parton. A couple Saturdays ago I went over to a friend's apartment around 8:00pm. We had plans to go out but when I opened her front door I found her nowhere near ready to go and seated with a bottle of white wine, riveted by a live concert of Dolly Parton she had rented from Netflix. I couldn't help laughing out loud. We are in Brooklyn, not some small town in Tennessee, shouldn't she be ironically watching an MTV reality show or, at least, some old footage of David Bowie and the Spiders From Mars? But soon enough, with a glass of wine of my own, I was seated next to Laura and making enthusiastic excuses for why we should postpone our evening plans in order to keep watching Dolly. Because Dolly is amazing! Seriously.

Five Reasons Why Dolly is a Personal Hero:

1. She wrote the song "I Will Always Love You" for Porter Wagoner, the man who discovered her, when, after years of doing duets with him, she defied critics and doubters and decided to go solo without him. She went on to have 25 hit singles and 41 top ten country albums (according to Wikipedia.)

2. She was in the movie 9-5 with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. And she sang that kick-ass song. You know, the one that Jessica Simpson was supposed to sing at the Dolly Parton tribute concert except she forgot the words and ran off stage.

3. When asked about her back pain, the reason she recently had to cancel some tour dates (including New York, damn it), she replied: "Hey, you try wagging these puppies around a while and see if you don't have back problems."

4. She has her own theme park in Tennessee called Dollywood.

5. Her live performances are like comfortable, intimate dinner parties and we are all invited. BYOB, of course (but not in front of the kids.) And she wears those white, bejeweled clam-diggers on stage.


Dolly Pardon performs Jolene live for your listening pleasure (glass of white wine not included):