Dolly Parton - Coat Of Many Colours / My Tennessee Mountain Home / Jolene

The records that turned homegirl Parton into a star

Quitting her day job as a featured vocalist on Porter Wagoner’s primetime TV show, Dolly Parton grabbed Nashville by the throat, becoming one of the most important female performers in country music history, not least because of her formidable talent as a songwriter. She penned seven of the 10 tracks on 1971’s Coat Of Many Colours, alternating between touching reminiscences of her own upbringing (the title song) and the beating of adulterous hearts (She Never Met A Man (She Didn’t Like)).

1973’s My Tennessee Mountain Home was a rootsier collection, with the hugely evocative Old Black Kettle. If Parton temporarily put the concerns of young urban womanhood on the backburner, she addressed the plight of the modern gal in spades on the following year’s Jolene. The title track is probably still her bestloved song, but Dolly further highlights the heartache of the cuckolded on Another Man’s Wife and Barbara On Your Mind, two of nine previously unreleased selections across these reissues.

As her empire expanded with mainstream MOR material, movie roles and even a theme park, the traditional Parton has occasionally gone AWOL, save for the intermittent bluegrass album. This trio of down-home releases first established her as a force to be reckoned with.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

SonyBMG | 82876812422 / 82876815292

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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