James Akenson
Goodness gracious….as they oft time out in the country…it seems like Dolly Parton is everywhere these days. Yes! Dolly Parton may not constantly be on the Country Music charts or on Country Music radio, but she is constantly in everyone’s Country Music hearts. How strong is Dollymania these days, you ask? Natalie Weiner of Don’t Rock the Inbox recently wrote
We just lived through a Dolly Parton press cycle, in case you’ve been hiding under a rock. There was the Netflix Christmas special and the new holiday album; a new book tribute to the country legend and her impact by Sarah Smarsh, called She Come By It Natural, another one by Lydia R. Hamessley called Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton and a new memoir/anthology by Parton herself called Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics.
Literally everything is coming up Dolly, and frankly there are plenty of way worse people to dominate the zeitgeist — a fact that national outlets that tend to only dabble in country music, like NPR, the New Yorker and the New York Times, seem to finally have realized.
In the words of the vintage Ginsu Knife commercials I like to reference But wait, there’s more! More recent Dolly items and more dealing with my personal Dolly experiences. And…in it all let’s explore just how Dolly…always a fascinating force in Country Music culture grows even bigger.
Dolly’s definitely been in my heart over the years. LP Mickie and I came to Tennessee Tech in 1973. My early, but limited, interest in Country Music took off and I started to explore using Country Music as a teaching resource in my courses. I became aware of Dolly in a variety of ways.
I remember seeing part of a Porter Wagoner show when we walked through Opryland theme park attached to the new Grand Ole Opry house on the banks of the Cumberland River away from Downtown Nashville. Dolly’s hits such as Jolene and My Tennessee Mountain Home became part of my Country Music landscape. I remember Dolly’s movie Rhinestone that irritated Nashville critics including Nashville Tennessean Country Music columnists. Of course, the movie 9-5 also made up part of my experiences in the 1980s.
The brother of a former Tennessee Tech students plays in a band at Dollywood. That doesn’t begin to list all the times Dolly entered my life and consciousness over the years. You get the idea. I’ll mention some more recent, even 2021, Dolly events later.
Let’s get to the title of this International Country Music discussion. It mentions ICON. Early in World War 1 Russian soldiers sometimes carried religious icons at the head of troop columns as they marched toward battle sites. Icons may be religious and associated as …an aide to devotion in the Byzantine and other Eastern Churches. An icon can also be a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or as worthy of veneration.
Got it? Yes. Icons represent people or things that serve as touchstone for almost everyone. Dolly Parton…long loved by a broad swath of Country Music fans plus lots of other admirers….has been on a J-Curve of sorts in recent years. She been elevated at a seemingly dizzy pace of late to icon status in the U.S. and even beyond.
Like graphs? A J Curve should be an old friend to you. A J Curve tends shows something taking off rather suddenly in its numerical impact. Think COVID-19 cases suddenly taking off in 2020. Economists…a dismal science of sorts… use it. Don’t care for math or economics? Try religion. You can get your life together with Jesus and a J-Curve. How about reading the book J Curve: Dying and Rising With Jesus in Everyday Life?
Folks outside the U.S. might not understand, but in the U.S. and the Bible Belt these days it should be a must read! As a lover of the King James version of the Bible once said If it’s good enough for Jesus Christ it’s good enough for me. The J- Curve is good enough for me thinking about Dolly Parton’s rise to iconic status in recent years.
Let’s look at the foundation, the building blocks so to speak, that made Dolly Parton’s rise to iconic status possible. Then we’ll check out the J-Curve. First, Dolly grew up in poverty in rural East Tennessee. Second, she lived the experience in songs she wrote such as Coat of Many Colors. Third, she began writing songs by age six. Fourth, she recorded as a teenager in Lake Charles. Louisiana and Nashville.
Fifth, she appeared on Cas Walker’s Knoxville, Tennessee Country Music radio program. Sixth, she got on a bus after high school graduation and moved to Nashville to pursue her Country Music career. These building blocks show a monster talent, ready to leave poverty behind, as well as a drive and confidence of remarkable strength. If that’s not the foundation for a successful Country Music career that could result in the current J-Curve then you can have Ned Kellytake my cash, Visa, and vehicle.
More recent events in my life include the swelling tide of the Dolly J-Curve. A trip to a conference in Gatlinburg, Tennessee showed that Dolly changed her dinner theatre show in her Dollywood theme park. She changed the title from Dixie Stampede and eliminated the Confederate Battle Flag.
Now it’s Dolly Parton’s Stampede. The Confederate Battle Flag and even the term Dixie in recent years increasingly upset people because of the Civil War connection to slavery. Dolly works at being inclusive.
Dolly stepped up big time after the 2016 devastating wild fire that destroyed much of the Gatlinburg, Tennessee region in which her Dollywood theme park is located. She promised of $1,000 per month for victims displaced by the fire. Her leadership even resulted in talks by University of Alabama professor Lance Kinney about Dolly as an ideal Chief Executive Officer.
Kinney views Dolly as an excellent CEO (Chief Executive Officer) in her Crisis Communication skills.
Dolly’s appearance at the Newport Folk Festival with the Highwomen means a lot to me personally and in my teaching. I just used the video of Eagle When She Flies in my Fall Semester 2020 Country Music graduate course. Dolly’s singing Eagle When She Flies with the Highwomen is itself on the road to being iconic!
And…I’ve used Eagle When She Flies in teaching lessons in the public schools. Talk about being chocked full of figurative language like Eagle, Sparrow, kaleidoscope of colors, stormy skies, and soft as feathers.
For Christmas 2020 I received Dolly Parton Songteller: My Life In Lyrics. It’s big…must weigh a tonne… and chocked full lyrics to her songs, photos of her, stories of the music business, and comments by Dolly on all sorts of topics. She even admits to liking music, sex, and food.
Ever go shopping at a super-sized store like Wal-Mart? LP (Life Partner) Mickie and I shop at Wal-Mart in Cookeville a lot. Checking out we use the lanes with cashiers….saves jobs! Of course, the check out lanes feature trashy, and not so trashy, magazines like People. I couldn’t resist the recent Dolly at 75 Special People Edition.
You’ve got to be an icon to justify almost 100 pages devoted to your life. We bought it. Dolly looks mighty fine for 75 although all the cosmetic surgeries couldn’t hurt. Take a look at the subtitle….Nashville to ‘9 to 5’ to Now: The Music Icon Who Brings The Country Together. Yes. The world ICON reflects that she’s definitely revered….and known…throughout the U.S…not to mention, Australia, Kenya, and Europe.
Bringing the U.S.A. together might be a bit of an exaggeration. The events of January 6th in Washington, D.C. and the results of the U.S. presidential election mean that not even Dolly can bridge all the bad feelings in the U.S. BUT….Dolly does have a knack for having all sorts of diverse people know her and love her.
She doesn’t make statements about who she supports for elections, but she says enough to be inclusive of African Americans and the gay and transgendered communities. Donating one million dollars to COVID-19 research endears her to me much less all the other ways she’s touched my life.
Also in 2021 two former students died of COVID-19. Brothers Jared and Keith lived to be but 54 and 47. I expect my students to live long beyond when I Cross River Jordan. I posted Dolly, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris singing Farther Along as part of my grieving Keith and Jared’s deaths to COVID-19…When death has taken our loved ones….Farther along we’ll know all about it. Farther along we’ll understand why…We’ll understand it all by-and-by.
Sounds as if Dolly is the perfect icon. Yes…BUT…being an icon comes at a risk. You’re always under scrutiny. Nobody’s is perfect. Recently, Dolly’s iconic status, the need to be viewed as an icon, and its accuracy came into question. Did Dolly REALLY think about the benefit to the African American community when she invested in property in The Gulchneighborhood in Nashville?
Or, did Dolly’s memory change over time and adapt so she believes her investment was designed to help African Americans. After all, The Gulch is now hot, hip, pricey, and cool. The Gulch is an example of gentrification. New housing is much more expensive and poor folks have to move.
This is just a sampling of the many times my personal and professional life have included Dolly. No wonder Dolly Parton continues in her 75th year to garner attention and admiration. She’s an icon for good reasons. Dolly’s journey… from her humble East Tennessee roots building upon a foundation with drive, ambition, and vision…weaves her into the fabric of our lives.
The library of Dolly’s imagination literally and symbolically touches almost everyone. Good Golly Miss Dolly! J-Curve to the stratosphere. Icon for the people.
