April 29:
Watch Dolly's NFL Draft Introduction Online

U.K., Australian Chart Updates
The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt dips two to No. 7 on the British country compilation albums chart in its 137th chart week, it was revealed Friday. Also on the U.K. country compilation albums chart, Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) falls seven to No. 16, while her Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) drops off the top 20, down from No. 13, and Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) re-enters the top 20 at No. 20. Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) inches up one to No. 15 in its 397th chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release, it was revealed Saturday.

Vote For Dolly In Golden Mic Awards
Dolly is again nominated for AOL's The Boot's Golden Mic Awards' Live Legend category. This year she faces off against Alabama, Clint Black, Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Vince Gill, Alan Jackson, Willie Nelson, John Prine and George Strait. You may vote as often as once per hour until 11:59 p.m. Eastern May 22 here with winners announced May 23.

Ronstadt Documentary Premieres
The Linda Ronstadt documentary Sound Of My Voice premiered last week at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City featuring interviews with Trio partners Dolly and Emmylou Harris, among other friends and performers. Read a review from The Hollywood Reporter here.

April 25:
Dolly Moves Pirates Voyage Opening By One Day
Dolly appears to have moved her appearance for the opening of her Pigeon Forge location of the Pirates Voyage dinner theatre from the June 6 date she announced at Dollywood's opening weekend in March to June 7. The new date was revealed during a media tour of the progress of the $9 million in renovations to the former Dolly's Smoky Mountains Adventure theatre, which noted the establishment's previously reported soft opening May 24 and revealed the new grand opening date with Dolly as June 7. Coverage on Wednesday included WCYB here and The Knoxville News-Sentinel here. An after-hours request to confirm the date with Dollywood spokespeople was not responded to by press time Wednesday night.

Dolly's Producer To Be Honored By Grammys
Although the guest performers have not been announced, I suspect it's likely Dolly will be back in Los Angeles on June 29 for a Grammy tribute concert fundraising gala in honor of producer Linda Perry that was announced this week. Linda Perry & Friends: A Night At The Grammy Museum begins with a performance at the Museum in LA and continues with a reception, silent auction and concert at Novo nightclub, Variety reported here. Perry produced Dolly's most recent album, the Dumplin' Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, co-writing five of its songs with her, including their Golden Globe-nominated "Girl In The Movies." Perry also arranged and produced the Grammy tribute to Dolly earlier this year as their MusiCares Person of the Year for the Grammy gala as well as the Grammy telecast. She was also this year the first woman in 15 years nominated for the Grammy for Producer of the Year. The performers at the event are expected to include several artists she has worked with before. Her past work as a songwriter and producer has included Christina Aguilera, Adele, Adam Lambert, Gwen Stefani and Celine Dion, among others.

Dolly NFL Spot Airs This Week
Don't forget to catch the NFL draft coverage from Nashville, which premieres at 8 p.m. Eastern Thursday, to see the 90-second introductory video on Music City and a young country music artist trying to make it in the business with narration by Dolly. The video is supposed to air at the beginning of coverage Thursday night, then again at 7 p.m. Eastern Friday and noon Saturday on ABC, ESPN, NFL Network and ESPN Deportes. The Boot had a story on the video here.

Knoxville Gets New Dolly Mural
Knoxville's Market Square has a new Dolly mural, WBIR reported here.

Dollywood Makes Best Of Parks List
Insider this week profiled the country's dozen best amusement parks not associated with Disney, including Dollywood. Read more here.

April 22:
'Trio' Remains Steady In U.K., 'Very Best' Holds Down Under
The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt holds steady at No. 5 on the British country compilation albums chart in its 136th chart week, it was revealed Friday. Also on the U.K. country compilation albums chart, Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) dips three to No. 9, while her Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) rises three to No. 13 and Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) and The Essential Dolly Parton both fall out of the top 20, down from No. 17 and No. 20, respectively. Down Under, the "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) holds steady at No. 16 in its 396th chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release, it was revealed Saturday.

Candidate's Spouse Wants Dolly For Presidential Inauguration
Could Dolly play a presidential inauguration? Of course, several candidates in recent years have used her classic "9 To 5" on the campaign trail (both Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin in 2008 and Elizabeth Warren in the current presidential race) and Trump danced to the song at one of his inaugural balls, but Dolly herself shies away from anything political. Chasten Buttigieg tweeted that his husband and presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg's statement to TMZ that he'd like Phish to play at his inauguration if elected showed their difference in musical opinions. The potential First Gentleman said his dream performers for an inauguration would be Beyonce, Jimmy Buffet and Dolly, according to The Indianapolis Star here.

Pirates Voyage Pigeon Forge Getting Closer To Being Ready
Dolly's Pigeon Forge location of her Pirates Voyage dinner theatre is getting closer to opening, and the pirate ships arrived last week. Read more from WBIR here.

April 19:
'Say Forever You'll Be Mine' Available For Download
Retailers on Thursday night began showing the 1975 Porter Wagoner and Dolly album Say Forever You'll Be Mine available this Friday for downloads, making the duo's 1980 lawsuit settlement album of older unreleased cuts, Porter & Dolly, their only RCA studio recordings not presently available for download (although eight of its 10 tracks were released recently on the rare recordings collection The RCA Sessions (1968-1976) and the other two are available on some other compilations, so some may consider that album technically available as well) in addition to two unavailable solo Dolly RCA albums, Bubbling Over and In The Good Old Days.

Dolly Helps Announce Titans Schedule
Music City's NFL team, the Tennessee Titans, this week released their schedule for the 2019 season and had several country music artists introduce each opposing team on the list, which concludes with Dolly encouraging fans to "Titan Up!" Watch the video here!

Drumstruck Returns Home To Africa
South African drum group Drumstruck recently returned home at the end of Dollywood's Festival of Nations, garnering several stories in the local media about their performances in the U.S. including one from satellite channel ENCA here.

'Little Sparrow' Makes Top 100 Albums List
Thanks to Chuck for alerting me that Taste Of Country put Dolly's Little Sparrow at No. 69 of the top 100 best country albums of the 2000s, also placing Brad Paisley's Time Well Wasted (which features his "When I Get Where I'm Going" duet with Dolly) at No. 25. See the entire list here.

Paula Deen Added To Knoxville Parade
Although Dolly won't be returning to her former Dolly Parade in Pigeon Forge this year, now called the Music In The Mountains Spring Parade, another big-mouthed southern broad will be making an appearance. The city announced this week that Paula Deen, who operates a restaurant in Pigeon Forge, will join Hal Ripken Jr., who replaced Dolly as grand marshal last year after 30 years, as co-grand marshal this year. Read more from The Knoxville News-Sentinel here.

Behar To Talk Of Designing For Dolly
Dolly's personal dress designer, Robert Behar, will be offering a Master Style Class in Los Angeles next week where he'll talk about the inspiration behind several of his iconic creations for Dolly, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and Naomi Campbell, among others, he revealed on his Instagram here. The lecture takes place at 3 p.m. Sunday, April 28, at the Guild Theatre in Hudson Theatre, Tickets may be purchased from Robertbeharevents@gmail.com.

April 16:
Baranski Joins Dolly Christmas Special
Musical theatre legend Christine Baranski apparently will appear in Dolly's Netflix holiday special, she told Page Six's Cindy Adams at this year's Hollywood Reporter party. Adams quoted her here saying: "I'm doing a Dolly Parton Christmas special for Netflix. Just we two together. I think I'm the Grinch." Not much else has been released about Christmas On The Square other than that Dolly wrote all of the music for it. Recently, the network was casting for dancers to appear in the film, which will shoot in the Atlanta area.

Dolly Interviewed About Kenny For Doc
Dolly was in a studio Monday taping an interview for an upcoming documentary on Kenny Rogers, Nashville's Boardwalk Productions revealed on Instagram. Thanks, Chuck!

April 15:
'Very Best' Hangs In On Top 20 Down Under
The "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) regains one to No. 16 in its 395th chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release, it was revealed Saturday.

Dollywood Receives Another Industry Top Honor
Dollywood on Saturday was presented with the Themed Entertainment Association's (TEA) highest honor, the Thea Classic Award, at the 25th annual Thea Awards Gala in Anaheim, Calif. Although Dolly could not be present, she sent an acceptance speech via video, and the park's president Craig Ross accepted the honor in person, according to Theme Park Insider here.

April 13:
'9 To 5' Goes Where No Song Has Gone Before
Dolly's classic "9 To 5" played a prominent role in Thursday night's episode of the science fiction comedy/drama series The Orville on FOX. In one of the series' more serious episodes, the ship discovers a colony of women on a hidden planet from a society that finds females disgusting and forces all children born as girls to have gender reassignment surgery to become male. Those who disagree with the practice have developed an underground railroad to ferry girls prior to any surgery to this settlement where they are raised to become women instead of men. With their discovery, the ship's captain suggests petitioning the Union of planets for recognition as an independent member so that the residents are not arrested and taken back to their home planet for forced surgery and imprisonment. On the ship to Earth, she asks if the captain's planet lets women express themselves. He gives her access to the database of female artists and she randomly selects "9 To 5." As it plays, she is spellbound, exclaiming Dolly is singing with the voice of a hundred warriors and will be the voice of their revolution. When she addresses the Union to make her case, she quotes the lyrics of the song as coming from one of Earth's great poets. When her home planet chooses to attack the colony and the ship's crew steps in to protect them, the ground phaser battle and space battle were choreographed to "9 To 5" (similar to the opening scene of Deadpool 2). And when the issue is resolved and the women are safe, their leader asks the captain, "Do you think Dolly Parton would be proud of us?" He answers, "Yes, I think she would." The gag shows the genius of show creator Seth McFarlane's comedy. His best humor comes from a place of truth and irony. An obvious Dolly fan given his use of several of her songs in his other shows in the past (most notably on American Dad), he is likely aware that she is held in high regard by serious music critics as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, but her image as perceived by the general public not aware of her vast catalog is not that of a poet but a big-boobed late night talk show joke, so when the character finds inspiration in her labor anthem and calls her one of the planet's greatest poets, the dialogue is designed to elicit laughter from most of the audience, unaware that the lines are truthful and that – as Dolly is fond of saying – the joke is on them.

'9 To 5' Also Makes It To 'Late, Late Show'
Broadway's Ben Platt last week appeared on The Late Late Show With James Corden for a "Soundtrack To A Bromance" performance telling the story of two friends over the course of their lives. Among the songs performed was Dolly's "9 To 5," which the Facebook feed of the West End version of Dolly's musical based on the film shared this week. Check out the clip here.

U.K. Chart Updates
The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt holds steady at No. 5 on the British country compilation albums chart in its 135th chart week, it was revealed Friday. Also on the U.K. country compilation albums chart, Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) rises three to No. 6, while her Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) gains one to No. 16 and Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) inches down one to No. 17. The Essential Dolly Parton slips one to No. 20.

April 11:
Dolly To Make NFL Debut With Voice-Over Duties
The NFL Draft will take place in Nashville this year, and the city's team, the Titans, announced on Wednesday that the NFL Network has tapped Dolly to record the voice over introduction for the channel's special three-day coverage April 25-27 under the theme "A Star Is Born." Learn more here.

Paper: Put Dolly In Rock Hall Of Fame
With the recent induction of Stevie Nicks, The Houston Press opined Wednesday on 15 other women who should be in the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame, including two country icons, Dolly and pal Loretta Lynn. Read their reasons here.

April 10:
Hear Rare Porter & Dolly 'Coat Of Many Colors' Recording

BBC Scotland Chats With Dolly About Songwriting
An interview with Dolly recorded during her recent stop in London to open the West End production of 9 To 5: The Musical aired Tuesday night on BBC Radio Scotland. Take a listen to Another Country With Ricky Ross here. The first hour features classic Dolly songs and covers, while the second hour features an interview focused mostly on her songwriting and interspersed with songs being played.

'Independent': Dolly's 1983 London Gig Was One Of All-Time Best
Critics for Britain's The Independent were asked recently to list the greatest concerts they have ever attended to compile a list of modern music's 18 best performances ever, and Dolly's 1983 stop at London's Dominion Theatre to film an HBO special was included here. The reviewer revealed he remained after the main concert after its posh audience of paid attendees left and about half an hour later a large group of punks and goths were brought in and Dolly provided them an "impromptu extra set, which was full of risqué jokes and blue banter." The reactions of the young audience members were filmed and then inserted into the footage of the real audience from the filmed concert earlier in the evening to give the impression that the audience was more diverse and younger than it actually was.

Ken Burns Praises Dolly In Documentary
PBS documentarian Ken Burns spoke with West Virginia Public Radio about his upcoming Country Music project here and gave much praise to Dolly, who participates in the project. At one point, he calls her one of the genre's all-time greatest songwriters and notes the simplicity of the lyrics to "I Will Always Love You" but the complexity she gives the song in performance. He also said the first episode includes a look at how multiple generations took "Mule Skinner Blues" and made it their own, from the original Jimmy Rodgers recording in 1930 through Dolly's 1970 version.

Ross Matthews Visits Dollywood
Former Tonight Show intern and current RuPaul's Drag Race judge Ross Matthews enjoyed a day at Dollywood this week and shared some of the images on Facebook here. He promises to talk about the trip on his Straight Talk podcast here.

Dolly Moved BTS Member To Tears
K-Pop group BTS this week released several clips of footage from their experience at this year's Grammy Awards, including one of member Jungkook being moved to literal tears during Dolly's tribute segment as she was performing "After The Goldrush." Check it out via Twitter here.

April 9:
Did Maren Morris Steal '9 To 5' Melody For New Song?
Did newcomer Maren Morris steal from Dolly? After she and The Brothers Osborne performed their new song, "All My Favorite People," on last weekend's ACM Awards, many observed that the tune (credited as being written by Morris with her husband Ryan Hurd and Mikey Reaves) bore a striking resemblance to the melody of Dolly's classic "9 To 5." Buffalo, N.Y., radio station WYRK noted the "déjà vu" here, while Go Buz opined here that the song "lifts its melody from Dolly Parton's '9 To 5.'" Even Slate said in its review of her new album here that "the verse's cadences are a clone of" Dolly's song and wondered if Morris copied it as "inadvertent pilfer or deliberate homage." In related news, KXXV in Waco, Texas, shared their creative services director's tribute to Dolly with a "9 to 5" music video staring her pet chicken, Nugget. Watch it here.

Harling Talks 'Steel Magnolias' As Anniversary Approaches
With its 30th anniversary just around the corner, sentimentality is setting in for Steel Magnolias, including a new interview with playwright Robert Harling where he recalled the excellent cast here with Closer Weekly. As Dollymania.net reported back in January, the film is returning to select theatres in May for the anniversary. Tickets are on sale for May 19, 21, and 22 in 500 cinemas across the country via Fathom's website here.

April 8:
Dolly Car Places Second At Bristol Race

Australian Chart Update
The "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) loses four to No. 17 in its 394th chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release, it was revealed Saturday.

Dolly Singing Contest Deadline Extended
According to Knoxville television station WVLT here, the deadline to submit audition recordings for the annual Dolly-composed song singing competition in her hometown, Sevierville's Mountain Soul Vocal Competition at the Bloomin' BBQ and Bluegrass Festival May 18, has been postponed a week. Originally due with an April 5 postmark, the deadline to mail an audition recording has been extended to Friday, April 12. Now in its 15th year, winners of the competition receive cash prizes and entry fees are $10 for the 13-and-up category and $5 for the 12-and-under category. The entry form and rules are available here. Contestants must perform a song composed by Dolly, regardless of whether she performed it or not, and organizers encourage contestants to visit Dollymania.net's list of her songs here to determine if their selection was written by Dolly or not.

April 6:
Dolly Receives New U.K. Gold, Platinum Awards
BPI (The British Phonographic Industry) on Friday announced two Dolly recordings had reached new certification levels last week. On March 29, the single "Jolene" was certified platinum for sales in excess of 600,000 since its digital release in 2004 (it had previously been certified gold in the U.K. in 2017 for 400,000 units and silver in 2014 for 200,000), and the 2013 compilation The Real Dolly Parton was certified gold for sales in excess of 100,000 (after going silver for sales of 60,000 in January 2018).

Sony Releases 22 Rare Porter & Dolly Tracks
Sony Music on Friday issued a new Porter & Dolly compilation featuring almost all of the rare and previously-unreleased tracks that first saw the light of day in the German label Bear Family Records 2014 boxed set Dolly Parton & Porter Wagoner: Just Between You And Me, Complete Recordings 1967-1976. Since fall 2018, the label has been releasing the classic Porter & Dolly duet albums for the first time ever on digital download. This week, instead of releasing one of the two albums currently unavailable (1980's Porter & Dolly and 1976's Say Forever You'll Be Mine), the label put out a new compilation of 22 rare tracks. The RCA Sessions (1968-1976) contains seven of the nine tracks that were first released on the complete recordings boxed set (missing for some reason are 1971's "Waldo The Weirdo" and 1976's "Golden Streets of Glory"), a 1969 track that was first released on a 2012 compilation, four alternate recordings of previously-released songs that were first released on the boxed set, their 1973 charity single duet "Here Comes The Freedom Train" and its B-side Porter solo "All Aboard America" (which on the boxed set was remastered from your webmaster's 45 single in my personal collection), and eight of the 10 songs that were overdubbed and remixed for their final album, 1980's Porter & Dolly (missing are the album's two singles, "If You Go, I'll Follow You" and "Making Plans") – which were the original, non-overdubbed versions on the boxed set and presumably also on this collection. Download the collection here!

U.K. Chart Updates
The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt dips one to No. 5 on the British country compilation albums chart in its 134th chart week, it was revealed Friday. Also on the U.K. country compilation albums chart, Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) rises six to No. 9, while her Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) loses six to No. 17 and Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) moves down two to No. 16. The Essential Dolly Parton re-enters the top 20 at No. 19.

Knoxville Dolly Exhibit Opens
The Dolly art exhibit previously reported on here a few weeks back opened on Friday in Knoxville at the Rala gallery, WVLT reported here.

April 5:
Dolly Die Cast Car Coming, Too
Lionel Racing, the official die cast maker for NASCAR, confirmed on Thursday that a model of Dolly's No. 2 Camaro which will debut at the Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday will be forthcoming. Although a date for release has not been announced, a spokesperson told Dollymania.net: "Yes we do plan to offer this die-cast. We'll post it on our web site and here on Facebook when we're approved to do so, so stay tuned!"

Dollywood Planning 'Dear Dolly' Kid Feeback Series
Thanks to a reader who alerted me that Dollywood is soliciting input from the park's youngest visitors for a new "Dear Dolly" segment. Children are encouraged to submit written or video questions about the park, observations or suggestions via e-mail and Dolly will address selected ones in an upcoming video series. Example questions included: "Dear Dolly, can you make a ride where I get to be invisible? Dear Dolly, I don't like that they serve vegetables in the restaurant. Dear Dolly, why don't you have more ice cream in the park? Dear Dolly, please do a show about unicorns." Emails are due here by April 15.

Celine Takes On 'Jolene'
Celine Dion this week released a weird video – but most things Celine does are rather odd :) – announcing her upcoming World Tour and she threw in a little Dolly. Watch the clip to the end here to see her belt out a little "Jolene."

April 4:
Dolly Gets Race Car At Bristol

Netflix Holiday Movie Casting Dancers
Dolly's Netflix Christmas musical Christmas On The Square is currently casting dancers age 8 and older with technical training to film in Atlanta. An open casting call will take place in Los Angeles on Saturday and Sunday, Backstage reported here.

Night Of 1,000 Dollys Returning Next Month
Organizers of the annual Night of 1,000 Dollys in Knoxville have announced details of their 10th anniversary celebration. The show will take place Saturday, May 11, with 11:30 p.m. and 1 a.m. showtimes at Club XYZ Doors open at 9 p.m. with $10 cover. Age 21 and up. The shows star The Queenz with Trixie Lynn and hosted by Raz. Productions from past shows will be revisited as well as Best Little Whorehouse and Joyful Noise and new Dolly songs. A Dolly-look-a-like contest takes place at midnight as well as a raffle to benefit Imagination Library featuring several prizes including Dollywood season passes. (The event is not affiliated with Dolly Parton, Dolly Parton Productions, Dollywood, or Imagination Library. Dolly will not be at the event.)

April 3:
'Jolene' On 'American Idol'

New Musical To Feature At Least One Dolly Song
Lively McCabe Entertainment, which recently inked a deal with Theatrical Rights Worldwide and BMG to develop theatrical musicals using previously-released songs, this week announced its first three projects, one of which be a stage musical featuring country music including Dolly. May We All will feature a book (script) written by Troy Britton Johnson and Todd Johnson and focus on disappearing small-town America as seen through the hopeful eyes of its youth when a fledgling country singer reluctantly comes home after a rough start in Nashville. Other artists whose music will be featured include Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, Loretta Lynn, Tim McGraw and Florida Georgia Line. Read more from Deadline here.

April 2:
Dollywood Gets In The April Fools' Jokes

April 1:
'Very Best' Still On Aussie Charts
The "gold series" re-issue of The Very Best Of Dolly Parton (Australian Tour Edition) loses three to No. 13 in its 393rd chart week on the Australian country albums chart since its original 2007 release, it was revealed Sunday.