By Claire Booth
Welcome back after our holiday break. I get the honors of ringing
in the new year with one of the first Do Some Damage posts of 2020, and I
thought I’d start the year off right by talking about something just about everyone
can agree on.
Dolly Parton.
Yes, the same Dolly Parton whose first album was released in 1967.
The same one who starred in 9 to 5 in
1980. The same one who wrote “I Will Always Love You,” which hit Number One
twice and later became one of the top-selling singles of all time. She’s never
stopped singing, composing, or acting—but it seems like lately, she’s
everywhere.
I’ve been riveted by Dolly
Parton’s America, a podcast hosted by a young Tennessean who wondered how
it is that a decidedly Southern, bewigged, seventy-something musician can draw
together fans who range from church-going Baptists to LGBTQ couples, from college
graduates to high school dropouts.
Host Jad Abumrad and producer Shima Oliaee do a good job with this
over the nine-episode series (the last episode dropped just this past week). They
address topics like how she refuses to be drawn into politics, the removal of
the word “Dixie” from her Stampede dinner theater show, her Dollywood theme
parks, and whether she considers herself a feminist (that topic is in the first
episode, “Sad Ass Songs.”)
They also delve into three of her biggest successes and their
cultural impact with individual episodes on the movie 9 to 5 and the songs “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You.” (Side
note and blow-your-mind-trivia tidbit: Dolly wrote those two songs on the same
day. Most ordinary creative genuises would count themselves lucky to write two such masterpieces in their entire careers.)
I’ve been talking to anyone who’ll listen about the podcast, and
some get it confused with the other Dollyverse venture currently playing. Dolly
Parton’s Heartstrings is an anthology series on Netflix that takes the
inspiration for each episode from one of her songs. Dolly also appears.
 |
| A greatest hits album. Not definitive, but a good place to start. |
It’s a fine series, if a little too Lifetime-ish for my tastes.
Which leads me back to the podcast—which is definitely journalistic enough for
my tastes. One reason I’m enjoying it so much is because it focuses on Dolly as
a writer and as a businesswoman.
And it seems to me that people in any kind of
creative business would be smart to pay attention to someone as savvy as she is
(and who has the talent to back up every thing she does). Dolly turned herself
into a brand before brands were a thing. She’s been teaching a master class on
the subject for more than 50 years, and we would do well to pay attention.
No comments:
Post a Comment