CD REVIEW: Dolly Parton - Backwoods Barbie

Artist: Dolly Parton
Title: Backwoods Barbie
Genre: Country
Label: Dolly Records
Release Date: February 26, 2008

In the years since her early days singing with country music icon Porter Wagoner, Dolly Rebecca Parton has become a legend in her own right. Her songs have become more than just hits - they've become woven into the very fabric of our culture. Songs such as "Jolene," "Coat Of Many Colors," and "Love Is Like A Butterfly" have proven her as a songwriter with great emotional depth, while songs like "Here You Come Again" and "9 To 5" have allowed her to cross over to pop stardom. Dolly's biggest crossover hit ever actually wasn't even a song that she sang on. Well, actually, she'd had a #1 country hit with it - twice - first in 1974 as the second single from her Jolene album, then again in 1982 as a single release from the soundtrack to her film The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. But when Whitney Houston recorded "I Will Always Love You" in 1992 for the soundtrack to her motion picture debut, The Bodyguard, it became more than just a song - it became the most successful single in music history by a female artist, selling over 10 million copies worldwide and pushing the film's soundtrack to sell more than 42 million copies worldwide, making it the biggest-selling soundtrack of all time. It wasn't the first time a Dolly-penned track had topped the Billboard Hot 100 - in 1980, the self-penned title track from her film debut 9 To 5 hit #1, making it her first top 10 hit since "Here You Come Again" hit #3 in 1977. Her last top 10 Billboard hit would occur in 1983, when her Bee Gees-penned duet with Kenny Rogers, "Islands In The Stream," also hit #1.

Since the mid 1990's, Dolly's radio play and sales may have waned, but she was still as popular as ever. With declining record sales and being all but abandoned by country radio, Dolly basically said "Fuck it" and decided to record a critically-acclaimed trio of folk-and-bluegrass-inspired albums, which earned her multiple Grammys. The albums contained a mix of self-penned originals, re-recordings of some of her previous hits, and cover songs, many of which were originally recorded by bands/artists such as Billy Joel, Led Zeppelin, Collective Soul, Johnny Cash, Cole Porter, and others.

In 2008, Dolly decided to make her long-awaited return to mainstream country music with the release of her first ever self-released album, Backwoods Barbie. Unfortunately, country radio still doesn't seem to want to play Dolly's music, as the album's two singles, "Better Get To Livin'" and "Jesus And Gravity," peaked at #48 and #56, respectively, on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. As a result, the album, which debuted at a respectable #17 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart with 27,000 copies in its second week of release (Her biggest debut ever on that chart.) and peaked at #2 on both Billboard's Country and Independent Albums charts, fell off the Billboard Top 200 after only a few months of release, selling barely over 100,000 copies. <rant> I know CD sales have gone down the toilet in the last few years, but this is ridiculous. God forbid country radio take away five spins of Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts' overplayed songs so Dolly can have a few more plays and at least crack the top 20 on the country charts. </rant> (Yeah, I'm not really a fan of them...or most people on country radio these days. Maybe I should rethink my desire to have Dolly played on country radio...) Anyhoo, she's making $300K-$500K per tour date, and she owns most of Pigeon Forge, TN by now, so I doubt she's hurting for money. She probably at the least made back all the money she spent to put the album out there on her own label.

Frankly, as much as I want the people I like to sell a million and have hits galore, in the end, sales don't mean a damn thing. Backwoods Barbie is a perfect example of this. The public may not want to buy it, but when I downloaded it and listened to it, I knew I had to go snatch up a copy and support Dolly. Backwoods Barbie is a nice little gem that I can pretty much have to myself without having to share it with the world, although sharing it with the world wouldn't be so bad either - at least then I'd have someone to obsess over it with.

Out of the disc's 12 songs, (not counting live tracks included as bonus tracks on various store and online versions of the album) nine were written solely by Dolly, two are covers written by others ("Drives Me Crazy," originally by Fine Young Cannibals and "The Tracks Of My Tears," originally by Smokey Robinson), one is an original written by others ("Jesus And Gravity"), and one was written by Dolly and Kent Wells, who also produced the album together. This song written by Dolly and Wells is the album's rousing and inspirational opener, "Better Get To Livin'." The song offers Dolly's advice for life and how to live a good one. "I'm not the Dali Lama, but I'll try to offer up a few words of advice." If there was ever anyone to ask for advice on how to live a long healthy life, it's probably Dolly. (Just don't ask for her advice on where to get a good face lift. Love her, but have you seen her lately?)

"Made Of Stone" is a heart wrenching emotional song in the country tradition of women dealing with their cheating husbands. But the mood isn't down for long, as the next track is "Drives Me Crazy," a cover of the 1980's hit by Fine Young Cannibals. Dolly has recorded many covers in her lifetime, and even though she may not make you forget the original, she definitely makes them her own, and this one is no different. While she does a great modern country-pop rendition of it, full of guitars and fiddles, at the end, she turns the song into a bluegrass-inspired hoedown that only someone like Dolly can pull off. The title track comes up next. Written for the 9 To 5 musical for the character of Doralee, Dolly's character in the original film, "Backwoods Barbie" is not only perfect for the character of Doralee, but its also as autobiographical as she gets, and explains what her fans have known all along. "I might look artificial, but where it counts, I'm real." The sound of the song is pure classic country in the tradition of her early 70's albums like Jolene and Coat Of Many Colors.

Up next is another inspirational song, "Jesus And Gravity." As the title may have given away, the song is steeped in Dolly's religious roots and features a choir. She sings about "somethin' liftin' me up, somethin' holdin' me down - somethin' to give me wings and keep my feet on the ground" without being contrived or cliched about it. Definitely one of the disc's highlights. The next track, "Only Dreamin'," is steeped in Celtic sounds and tells the story of a woman brokenhearted by a breakup. This song is about as emotional as one can get, and Dolly nails it. Following this track is her cover of Smokey Robinson's "The Tracks Of My Tears." Again, Dolly puts her own stamp on the song and does a fantastic job. The next song, "The Lonesomes," reminds one of any one of Patsy Cline's legendary hits.

My favorite song from the entire disc comes on. "Cologne" is a track about cheating. Classic country fodder, I know. This song is from the point of view of "the other woman" and presents a story of a woman so desperately in love with a man that she's willing to give up something small like perfume to be with him. "Love has a nature all its own, so I willingly gave up cologne." The song starts off softly and builds to a vocal, musical, and emotional climax, then ends as softly as it began.

"Shinola" has a whole lot of attitude and is a classic "Fuck off" kind of song. "I'm callin' you out, cause I don't need this crap. I'm gettin' myself out of Dodge." "I Will Forever Hate Roses" is another classic country tune where Dolly recounts the reason for her hatred of roses - her man broke up with her in a note included with a bouquet of roses. The platter (or at least the standard version of it) ends with "Somebody's Everything," which is simply a good closer for an album and is a classic "I'm lonely and need someone to love me" song.

The packaging of Backwoods Barbie is far better than one would expect from an independent release. Lately I've been noticing that album covers and such...just suck. I know that the music is the most important thing, but packaging CAN entice people to buy something, trust me. The CD comes in a thin digipak...not the wallet crap like many current released such as Celine Dion's Taking Chances, but a true digipak, with a plastic tray to hold the CD in place. Inside the front flap is a sleeve that holds the CD booklet. The cover is a delight and features a grinning Dolly with her trademark blonde hair piled up about a foot high in a low-cut and short leopard-print number with a sheer pink coat on top while she's lying on a big pile of hay inside a butter-colored classic pickup truck, giving a visual of the Backwoods Barbie title. The back features a view of the truck from behind and fairly low, allowing one to see the Dolly mudflaps. (A silhouette of which is also on the disc itself.) The booklet includes more pictures that echo the Backwoods Barbie theme plus lyrics to all the songs. The biggest treat on the cover is the return of a fan-favorite - the Dolly logo used on pretty much all of Dolly's RCA albums from 1977's Here You Come Again up until her departure from RCA in 1985 with the Real Love album. The Dolly logo is also utilized in the Dolly Records logo, along with a butterfly. (Likely a reference to her country hit "Love Is Like A Butterfly.") The logo for Dolly Records is seen on the album art many times, including on the lower right-hand corner of the cover. Not a problem for me, as I think it's gorgeous.

From beginning to end, Backwoods Barbie is a fantastic listen and even though Dolly may not have the airplay and sales power she once had, it proves why she's become a legendary music icon. The CD is pure, honest music straight from Dolly's heart. If you haven't picked up a copy yet, please consider giving it a try. It's a fantastic listen, and you won't regret the 45 minutes you spent listening to it, I promise. I give the CD 10 stars out of 10. Absolutely wonderful.