May 31: 'Going' Remains On Radio The award-winning collaboration by Brad Paisley and Dolly on "When I Get Where I'm Going" is still big at country radio, the June 10 recurrent country singles chart reveals. The list's top five positions, announced Tuesday, showed the tune inching down one digit to No. 4 with a decrease of about 300,000 listeners to about 13.7 million on the record of radio airplay for songs that have been removed under chart rules from the main singles tally. Were the two charts counted together, the song would have registered at No. 23, compared to the equivalent of No. 22 the previous week.
Doc Gets Mentioned The Dolly fan documentary For The Love Of Dolly earns a note in a New York Blade preview here for the NewFest film festival which starts in the city on Thursday. The feature focusing on several of Dolly's biggest fans will screen there on June 11 (followed by June 15 at the Provincetown International Film Festival in Massachusetts and June 17 at Frameline30 in San Francisco).
May 30: Louvin Collaboration Available You may recall it reported here a little over a year ago that Dolly had been in the studio recording a new song with fellow Hall of Fame member Charlie Louvin. Well, the tune is now out. "Circle of Friends," which features the two singers joined by Alison Krauss, is included on Louvin's new Country Country Records release, If Only In A Song. Listen to an MP3 sample from the recording and place an order via PayPal at the label's Web site here. Thanks, Tony!
Happy Anniversary, Carl And Dolly! As the story goes, some 42 years ago Tuesday, Dolly Parton met Carl Dean at the Wishy Washy Laundromat in Nashville the day after she moved to Music City to pursue her dreams of stardom. Against her record label's wishes, they secretly wed two years later to the day in Ringgold, Ga., crossing the state line so it would be kept out of the Tennessee newspapers. They remain happily married to this day. Happy 40th anniversary to the couple! May their next four decades together be equally blessed and joyous as the first!
May 29: Paper: Dolly 'Charmer' On DVD With its release on DVD last Tuesday, the film TransAmerica has been in the news a lot lately with reviews, most of which note in passing that the DVD contains Dolly's video for her Oscar-nominated "Travelin' Thru" and a featurette on the song. The Miami Herald, however, goes further this weekend to say that Dolly "was robbed" at the Academy Awards and calls the featurette on her tune "a charmer." Read the full review here.
May 27: Get Wet! After a one-weekend preview for season passholders and one weekend open to the public, Dollywood's Splash Country water park on Saturday begins its regular daily operating season. The park, which is adjacent to Tennessee's Dollywood in Pigeon Forge and premiered the Fire Tower Falls this year, is currently open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. daily.
More On Gas And speaking of Pigeon Forge, a longer version of the Associated Press story on the city's free gas give-aways made several newspapers and other media outlets Friday. Check it out on CNN.com here!
Up On GAC The video for "When I Get Where I'm Going" by Brad Paisley and Dolly inches up another notch this week to No. 3 on the Great American Country (GAC) Top 20 Countdown, it was announced Friday. The track, which has been rising in recent weeks on the fan-voted countdown, had already previously peaked for two weeks at No. 1, a position held this week by Paisley's current video for "The World." Cast your votes for next week's list here!
May 26: Steady On 'Billbaord,' Gone From CMT Two days after winning two awards at the Academy of Country Music ceremonies, Dolly and Brad Paisley saw their collaboration on "When I Get Where I'm Going" remain steady on the June 3 Billboard recurrent charts for songs that have been removed from the main singles lists due to chart rules. The song stays at No. 19 for the all-genre Hot 100 pop recurrent singles tally, it was revealed Thursday, and, as previously reported here, remains steady at No. 3 country recurrent. On CMT, however, the award-winning video for the tune falls off the Top Twenty Countdown, down from No. 17 the previous week, its 18th. The ACMs' Album of the Year, Paisley's Time Well Wasted, which features the hit duet, rises three to No. 12 country but declines two to No. 73 pop and comprehensive in its 40th week, sliding four to No. 26 Canadian country. Martina McBride's Timeless, featuring"I Still Miss Someone" with Dolly, tumbles seven to No. 36 country in its 30th chart week and falls back out of the top 200 pop and comprehensive, down from No. 148 and No. 159, respectively, the previous week. It also plummets 30 points to No. 66 Canadian country. Kenny Rogers's 21 Number Ones, which includes "Islands In The Stream," inches down one to No. 24 country in its 17th week, dropping 23 to No. 126 pop and 25 one to No. 131 comprehensive. In Canada, it dips seven to No. 42 country. Rod Stewart's Stardust . . . The Great American Songbook: Volume III, featuring his hit duet with Dolly on "Baby It's Cold Outside," falls back off the 200-position pop albums and comprehensive charts, down from No. 169 and No. 187, respectively, the previous week, its 34th. Rhonda Vincent's Ragin' Live, featuring a cover of "Jolene," falls three to No. 9 in its 62nd week on the bluegrass albums tally. Rascal Flatts' Me And My Gang remains steady at No. 6 pop and earns a seventh straight week at No. 1 country with 64,000 copies sold, while Tim McGraw's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 remains steady at No. 2 country but dips eight to No. 21 pop in its eighth week.
P'Forge Offers Free Gas If you visit Dollywood's home of Pigeon Forge, Tenn., this summer, you might get some help with the high cost of fuel. The Associated Press reports the city has a staff of volunteers who will be visiting its music theatres, outlet malls, restaurants and attractions randomly offering $30 gas certificates. Read more from Memphis TV station WREG here.
May 25: ACMs -- Paisley: Dolly Made Harmony An Event The results of Tuesday night's Academy of Country Music Awards, which saw Dolly take home two trophies with Brad Paisley, dominated entertainment coverage Wednesday. Country Weekly reported in its online edition here that Paisley praised Dolly's work on their collaboration "When I Get Where I'm Going," for which they shared honors for Vocal Event of the Year and Video of the Year. "Her part was really just a harmony vocal for most artists, but the power of Dolly is that she turned a harmony into a Vocal Event," the magazine quoted him telling the press backstage. Other coverage of the awards is available from Billboardhere, the Associated Press here and CMT.com here. Most reports, however, ignored Dolly's accomplishment of tying with Carrie Underwood and Brooks & Dunn as the second-most-awarded artist of the evening for her two wins. Instead, they noted Paisley was the night's top-winner with three honors, two of which he received for his song "When I Get Where I'm Going," which just happened to feature Dolly -- making it read as if she didn't share in the awards -- before listing that Underwood and Brooks & Dunn received two awards each. I suspect part of the problem was that both of Dolly's awards were handed out prior to the main ceremony and thus relegated to a one-second blip on the bottom of the screen during the live telecast of the other honors and the other part was the official ACM press release. While it included Dolly in the full list of awards for each category, which showed her total of two if one added it up on his or her own, it didn't mention her at all in the body of the release, instead just listing all of the night's other multiple-winning artists, saying Paisley won three and Underwood and Brooks & Dunn's two each. CMT.com went so far as to lead off its coverage with the following erroneous statement: "Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood and Brooks & Dunn were the only artists winning multiple awards Tuesday night (May 23) at the 41st annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas." For the record, the ACMs recognize Vocal Event of the Year by presenting the award by name to the song's artists, producers and record label; since Dolly was listed by the ACM with Paisley as an artist on the song, the two of them share it equally. Likewise, the ACMs recognize Video of the Year by presenting the award by name to the video's producers, directors and artists; again, the ACMs chose to list the video's artists as "Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton," so she shares the award with him equally (she sings throughout the video even though she only appears visually for a few seconds).
Song Still On 'R&R' Recurrents Meanwhile on the Radio & Records charts this week, "When I Get Where I'm Going" dips one to No. 5 on the five-position recurrent country singles tally, it was announced Wednesday. If chart rules had allowed it to remain on the regular country singles list, it would have come in at No. 23 for the week based on airplay, compared with the equivalent of No. 24 the previous week.
And Overseas After logging one more week on the European CMA charts, the title track from Dolly's covers album, Those Were The Days, falls back out of the German top 20 country singles airplay chart, it was announced Wednesday, down from No. 7.
Dolly In 'CW' Again Dolly shows up a few places in the new issue of Country Weekly on newsstands now. There's a shot of her from April's season opening at Dollywood from the park's new candy shop, a "Then & Now" photo comparison from 1981 and the present day and one Dolly question in the magazine's "ultimate country fan quiz."
Coach Said Dolly Didn't Need Help Would you turn down a chance to work for Dolly, well, one California vocal coach did. Deborah Shulman, who has worked with Bette Midler and David Lee Roth, told The Press-Enterprise that she declined to work with Dolly because her voice didn't need any coaching. Some problems she was having on stage were due to problems with her monitor speakers, not her voice. "She didn't need me at all," she explained. "I told her, 'at the risk of turning down a very nice salary, you don't need me.' She couldn't hear herself ... she just needed to have the speakers adjusted." Read the story here.
May 24: Dolly & Brad: 2 For 3 At ACMs Dolly can add two more Academy of Country Music statues to her trophy case at Dollywood, as "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Brad Paisley took home both Vocal Event of the Year and Video of the Year at the awards show from Las Vegas Tuesday night. Unfortunately, both categories were announced before the live telecast, so they were not presented on the air. The duo lost their third nomination, for Song of the Year, to "Believe" by Brooks & Dunn. Paisley's Time Well Wasted, the CD which contains the track, won Album of the Year. This brings Dolly's career ACM total to seven named wins. Paisley, the night's top nominee with six total nods, lost Male Vocalist to Keith Urban (who added a bit of John Lennon's "Imagine" to his performance of "Tonight I Wanna Cry") and Single to Carrie Underwood's "Jesus, Take The Wheel."
Dolly Charms U.K. Radio Audience Dolly was a delightful host Tuesday on the Carter Family documentary Will The Circle Be Unbroken, which aired on BBC Radio 2. Filled with new and classic interviews with the family members, music historians and other artists influenced by the country music pioneers, Dolly told their story and introduced both the family's original recordings and excerpts from more recent covers of their classic hits, including almost at the end of the program a chorus of "I Never Will Marry" by Linda Ronstadt with Dolly herself (a top 10 single from Ronstadt's 1977 LP Simple Dreams). Dolly's narration throughout the show was relaxed and friendly, very reminiscent of the stories she told on her own For God And Country disc to introduce many of its songs. If you missed listening to the live broadcast in the U.K. or worldwide via the Internet, you may hear it by clicking on the "Listen again to the documentary link" on the BBC's website here.
May 23: ACM Interview -- Paisley: Dolly's 'Wonderful' The big night is here, as Dolly and Brad Paisley face off with the other nominees for three possible wins at Tuesday's Academy of Country Music Awards from Las Vegas. Although Dolly has not been announced as attending, Paisley will open the show with his current single, "The World." In an interview Monday on The Early Show, he told CBS News that working with Dolly is "as you can imagine, everybody's dream, I think, and it's just what you would hope it would be. She's so professional. And so, absolutely, she comes in so prepared to do what she does, and doesn't let you down. Because ... when she sings and when she puts her voice on something, it instantly becomes a work of art, I think. She's wonderful." Read a story based on the interview from CBS News.com here. Video of the full interview is also available on the site (while in the video version the Dolly comment is in answer to the first real question asked, it is buried on the second page of the text version). Their collaboration on the No. 1 hit "When I Get Where I'm Going" garnered half of Paisley's six nods, the most of any artist for the evening. For Video of the Year, which is awarded to the producers, director and artists, they compete with "As Good As I Once Was" by Toby Keith, "Believe" by Brooks & Dunn, "I May Hate Myself In The Morning" by Lee Ann Womack and "Kerosene" by Miranda Lambert. For Vocal Event of the Year, which is awarded to the artists, producers and record company, they face "I Play Chicken With The Train" by Cowboy Troy and Big & Rich, "Like We Never Loved At All" by Faith Hill with Tim McGraw and "Who Says You Can't Go Home" by Bon Jovi with Jennifer Nettles. And although Song of the Year is billed as a songwriter's award, it is actually presented to the composer(s), publisher(s) and artist(s), so if they win that honor, Dolly would also get credit for it as well. In that category, the song is nominated with Sugarland's "Baby Girl," Brooks & Dunn's "Believe," Carrie Underwood's "Jesus, Take The Wheel" and Rascal Flatts' "Skin (Sarabeth)." Dolly is tied with Big & Rich and Womack for the fourth-most nominations this year. In her career, Dolly has amassed 39 ACM nominations, of which she has won five. She was most recently nominated last year with Norah Jones in the Vocal Event category for "Creepin' In," which they lost to Paisley and Alison Krauss for "Whiskey Lullaby." Winners of this year's trophies will be announced live on CBS starting at 8 p.m. Eastern Tuesday.
Tune In For Dolly Radio Special Don't forget to listen in to Dolly hosting an hour-long radio special on the Carter Family Tuesday afternoon. The show will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 at 8:30 p.m. British time, which is 3:30 p.m. Eastern U.S. time, and will be available online via the network's "Listen Live" function here. (Most of their programs are also offered on-demand from the BBC website for a week or so after they air, so if you miss it, look at their site to see if you can hear it again!) Radio Times offered a brief review of the program here Monday, noting that the show took four years to complete and that Dolly opted to do it because she "feels a personal connection with the Carter Family."
'Going' Holding Steady On 'Billboard' I would expect if it wins something Tuesday, "When I Get Where I'm Going" by Brad Paisley with Dolly will likely move up a spot or two on the recurrent country singles charts, which track airplay for songs that have been removed under chart rules from the main singles tallies. This week, though, the tune remains steady at No. 3 on the June 3 list from Billboard, the magazine revealed Monday. With a gain of nearly 200,000 listeners for the week to about 14 million, the song would have ranked at No. 22 had the recurrent and regular country singles charts been merged, compared to the equivalent of No. 23 the previous week.
Get To The Store! Previously available online only, fans may now enjoy the video for Dolly's Oscar-nominated tune "Travelin' Thru" in the comfort of their living rooms, as the footage -- with a behind-the-scenes featurette on the song -- hits stores Tuesday in the DVD release of TransAmerica, the Felicity Huffman film for which she composed the tune. Order it here! In addition, it is also the release date for the new Rhonda Vincent CD, All American Bluegrass Girl, which finds Dolly providing gorgeous harmonies on the track "Heartbreaker's Alibi." Get your copy of that here!
May 22: Couple Of Appearances On CMT 'Insider' Although CMT's Insider neglected to mention Dolly in its brief interview with Brad Paisley about being the most-nominated artist for Tuesday's Academy of Country Music Awards (half of his six nods are shared with Dolly for their collaboration on "When I Get Where I'm Going"), Dolly did show up in a couple of spots during the broadcast. In a piece about Reba McEntire's WB sitcom being picked up for one final abbreviated season on the new CW network, footage from Dolly's guest appearance on the program was shown, and in the list of the year's most-nominated performers for the ACMs, it was noted that Dolly is tied in fourth place for the most noms this year with three. In related news, over on the CMT Top Twenty Countdown, the song's video dipped five to No. 17 for the week.
More Info On Movie Song Thanks to a dedicated reader who went through the trouble of locating for me some additional information on the film The King, I'm told that the song Dolly performs over the opening credits of the film is "There Will Be Peace In The Valley For Me," which she recorded on 2003's For God And Country. Thanks, Tony!
Dolly Song Contest Held If you were in East Tennessee last weekend, I hope you were able to stop in at the second annual Bloomin' Barbeque and Bluegrass Festival in Sevierville, just up the road from Dollywood. In addition to a couple thousand pounds of barbeque, quality bluegrass from Ricky Skaggs and former Dolly backing band The Grascals, the festival for the second year presented the Mountain Soul Vocal Competition. A total of 20 finalists from around the country were selected to perform a Dolly-written song of their choosing (except the often-covered "I Will Always Love You") in any musical style, with the winner taking home a $500 prize and a recording session in a Nashville studio. (All contestants were asked by contest organizers to verify their song was, in fact, written by Dolly by accessing a list of the tunes she has written that have been recorded and released by her or other artists on Dollymaniahere.) About 20,000 were expected for the event, hosted by the Sevierville Chamber of Commerce. Read a preview from The Mountain Presshere and a profile of one of the contest's local singers from the paper here. Ed. Note: As originally posted, this item referred to the festival being held the upcoming weekend, May 26-27, when it should have referred to it having been held the previous weekend, May 19-20. It has since been corrected. Our apologies for the error.
May 20: Paisley On The Talk Shows Although Dolly isn't listed as a guest, she's sure to be talked about on Saturday's CMT Insider and Monday's The Early Show on CBS. Academy of Country Music top nominee Brad Paisley is slated to be interviewed about Tuesday night's awards on both shows, and he shares half of his six nominations with Dolly for their collaboration on "When I Get Where I'm Going," giving Dolly a tie with Lee Ann Womack and Big & Rich for the fourth-most nominations this year. In related news, the video for the song jumps six spots to No. 4 for the week on the Great American Country (GAC) countdown. Vote for it for next week's tally here.
Another Track In An Indie Film Dolly's got another song on film, according to reports. Premiere magazine noted in a review of the new movie The King, which opened Friday in very limited release, that the motion picture starring Gael Garcia Bernal and William Hurt uses a Dolly "spiritual" tune during its opening credits. The review, here, didn't specify which song is used, although the only other mention of Dolly's involvement I could find (in a fan review from the Cannes Film Festival) stated that the score was "aided by classic tunes by Dolly Parton and others," so it's apparently not a new track.
Mass. Screening Date Set For Fan Film The screening date and time has been revealed for next month's showing of the Dolly fan documentary For The Love Of Dolly at the Provincetown International Film Festival in Massachusetts. The movie will be seen at 2:30 p.m. June 15, according to its director. The film, which has screened in Miami, Nashville and Dallas to positive reviews, will also show at festivals in New York and San Francisco next month and Los Angeles in July. Learn more here.
Latest Chart Updates "When I Get Where I'm Going" by Dolly and Brad Paisley continues to linger on the May 27 Billboard recurrent charts for songs that maintain sizeable airplay but have been taken off the main singles lists under chart rules. The tune inches down one to No. 19 on the all-genre Hot 100 recurrent pop singles tally but, as was previously reported here, gains three to No. 3 on the country recurrent tally. Paisley's Time Well Wasted, containing the song, slips one to No. 15 country and No. 71 pop and comprehensive in its 39th week, rising eight to No. 22 Canadian country. Martina McBride's Timeless, with Dolly on "I Still Miss Someone," shoots up 10 places to No. 29 country in its 29th chart week, re-entering the pop side at No. 148 pop and No. 159 comprehensive. It also climbs eight to No. 36 Canadian country. Kenny Rogers's 21 Number Ones, with "Islands In The Stream," falls three to No. 23 country in its 16th week, remains steady at No. 103 pop and gains one to No. 106 comprehensive. In Canada, it rises three to No. 35 country. After slipping off the charts for a week, Rod Stewart's Stardust . . . The Great American Songbook: Volume III, with the No. 2 Dolly duet "Baby It's Cold Outside," re-enters the pop albums chart at No. 169 and comprehensive chart at No. 187 for a 34th week. The Grascals find their CD, The Grascals, featuring Dolly on "Viva Las Vegas," fall back out of the 15-position bluegrass albums chart after re-entering last week for a 22nd week at No. 7, and Sarah Harmer's I'm A Mountain, with a cover of "Will He Be Waiting For Me," also falls of that tally, down from No. 14 the previous week, its 12th. Rhonda Vincent's Ragin' Live, with her live version of "Jolene," gains two to No. 6 in its 61st week. Rascal Flatts' Me And My Gang slides one to No. 6 pop and remains steady at No. 1 country for its sixth week with 89,000 copies sold, while Tim McGraw's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 gains one to No. 2 country and five No. 13 pop in its seventh week.
'Reba' Reprieve From The CW The CW, the new television network resulting from the merger of UPN and the WB, on Thursday formally announced its first fall schedule, which included the surprise revelation that Reba McEntire's sitcom, Reba, will return for a sixth season. Although preliminary reports had said that while it was the WB's highest-rated sitcom the new CW didn't plan to bring it back because its demographics leaned toward older viewers, the network apparently didn't want to shell out the reported $20 million it would have to pay producers to cancel it. Instead, the show will have a 13-episode final season, a little more than half the number of episodes usually included in a full season. Dolly had made a guest spot on the program a little over a year ago and was trying to finalize plans for a return for another appearance before the most recent season ended, although that didn't work out. She'll now have 13 final episodes to try and schedule a return visit or two. Image of Dolly and Reba on the show courtesy The WB.
Get Old Porter Tune Thanks to an astute reader who went in search of the Porter Wagoner song "Mother Church" after seeing it mentioned here a few weeks back, I can pass along where to get one. The song, which contains a who's who of the Grand Ole Opry, including a brief appearance by Dolly, is included on Wagoner's 1991 CD Pure Gold, which is available for $10 plus $2.50 postage and handling from Porter Wagoner Enterprises, P. O. Box 290785, Nashville, TN 37229. A VHS of Porter's Life & Times, which also includes the video for the song, is available at the same price. Thanks!
May 18: Dolly Talks Carter Family In U.K. Dolly will host a radio program next week detailing the life and career of country pioneers the Carter Family, the BBC has announced. The program, Will The Circle Be Unbroken?, will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 at 8:30 p.m. British time Tuesday and will be available online at that time (click here at the appropriate time and choose "Listen Live" in the upper right-hand corner -- it will be 3:30 p.m. Eastern U.S. time on Tuesday). According to the network, Dolly tells the story of how A.P. Carter, his wife Sara and sister-in-law Maybelle brought their songs from the mountains and into the mainstream as one of the first superstars of country music. For the hour-long documentary, the BBC says Dolly interviewed several descendents of the Carter family, including their youngest daughter, Janette, just prior to her death earlier this year, in addition to grandchildren Rita Forrester, Dale Carter and John Carter Cash. Thanks, Tracey!
You Adrian, I Can't Sing! The Ledger-Enquirer in Columbus, Ga., offers a pretty funny rip on Dolly's 1984 bomb Rhinestone this week, with the columnist tearing up Sylvester Stallone's horrid performance in the film which left emotional scars for that viewer. He does note, however: "The bright spot in all of this is Dolly Parton, somehow sharing a stage with the imbecile, carrying on like a pro while keeping a straight face." Read the full article here.
'Going' Returns At 'R&R' "When I Get Where I'm Going" by Dolly and Brad Paisley re-enters the top five recurrent country singles chart over on Radio & Records this week, the magazine announced Wednesday. The collaboration had the previous week fallen out of the top five on the list of the songs that have been removed from the main singles list under chart rules but remain strong in airplay. This week, it returns at No. 4 with enough airplay that had it been on the main singles chart, it would have been No. 24.
May 17: Another 'Hannah Montana' Suggestion In what could be a positive sign for a possible Dolly appearance on The Disney Channel series Hannah Montana, the network has revealed that an episode expected to air later this season will be titled "Good Golly, Miss Dolly!" Each installment's title is a take on a popular song, in this case Little Richard's "Good Golly, Miss Molly." The series, which stars country singer Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter, Miley, in the title role as a teen pop star, this weekend will air its eighth episode, and the "Miss Dolly" one is No. 19, which suggests it might be broadcast around mid-August. As you may recall being noted here a few days ago, a TV Guide Online columnist reported a source saying Dolly would be making a guest spot on the tween series sometime this summer, although nothing official has come out on that yet. Thanks, Tony!
European Update Dolly is getting a little airplay overseas again, this week's European CMA charts show. The title track from her covers album, Those Were The Days, re-enters the German top 20 country singles airplay chart, coming in at No. 7.
A Little Light Reading Thanks to Clint from his personal website/Dolly fan site Essentially Clint, who asked this week to interview your webmaster about Dollymania. Take a read here.
May 16: 'Going' Still Going Strong On Radio Proving its continued longevity and popularity on country radio, the smash No. 1 by Brad Paisley and Dolly, "When I Get Where I'm Going," will gain three to No. 3 on the May 27 recurrent country singles chart, Billboard announced Monday. The position on the tally which tracks airplay of singles that have been removed from the main country list due to chart rules, represents a nationwide audience of 13.8 million listeners, a dip of about 400,000 from the previous week. Were the recurrent singles merged with the main country chart, "Going" would have come in at No. 23, the same position it would have held the previous week.
It's Hard Out Here For A . . Drag Queen Las Vegas had a temporary Dolly recently, The Las Vegas Review Journal reports, with one of the paper's columnists donning Dolly drag for one night in the legendary "An Evening at La Cage" female impersonator show at the Riviera. Read the humorous story of his transformation here (and see video of it here).
More Library Coverage The Cleveland Daily Banner in Tennessee adds more fuel to the success of Dolly's Imagination Library literacy program with a talk this week with local teachers about the importance of reading to young children, one of the nationwide program's main goals. Read more here.
Wanna Work At Dollywood? Dollywood is looking for some team members to help with its guests from around the world. Applications are being accepted for food service and merchandise hosts, game attendants and ride operators. Learn more here! Also, the park's volunteer program will find the park donating $6.50 to a 501(c)3 non-profit organization for each hour one of that organization's group volunteers works at the park. Call 1-865-428-9415 for information.
May 15: More On '9 To 5' The 9 To 5: Sexist, Egotistical, Lying, Hypocritical Bigot Edition anniversary DVD publicity train rolls on, with an interview over the weekend in The San Francisco Chronicle with male lead Dabney Coleman which focuses greatly on his thoughts and observations of the three ladies from the classic film: Dolly, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. Read it here!
Release Reminders Don't forget it's just a week away from a couple of new Dolly-related releases! On May 23, stores will receive Rhonda Vincent's new CD, All American Bluegrass Girl, featuring Dolly on "Heartbreaker's Alibi," as well as the DVD of Transamerica, with the music video of Dolly's Oscar-nominated song, "Travelin' Thru," and a behind-the-scenes "making of" feature on it, too!
May 13: More Dolly In Upcoming 'CW' Issue I'm told Country Weekly is asking readers to choose again between two possible covers for an upcoming issue featuring Dolly, although she is with several folks. The first uses an image from her red carpet arrival at the Oscars this year alongside pictures of several other country performers for the magazine's Academy of Country Music style coverage -- which, of course, would require she attend the May 23 ceremony to be featured, and she's currently not a scheduled presenter or performer, so that one wouldn't necessarily be a slam dunk for Dolly on the cover even if the magazine's polling audience chooses it. The second shows publicity photos of her, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney and others for a cover story on the current popularity of songs of a spiritual nature in country music, which would no doubt discuss her recent record-breaking No. 1 hit, "When I Get Where I'm Going." The issue would be dated mid-June and hit newsstands around the end of May. Thanks, Tony!
'Going' Rising On GAC "When I Get Where I'm Going" by Dolly and Brad Paisley gains a little this week on the Top 20 Countdown on Great American Country (GAC). The cable network's new chart, released Friday, shows the video for the collaboration inching up one digit to No. 10 for the week on the fan-voted tally. Cast your ballot for next week's list here!
Sumner Preps For Library The Tennessean subsidiary The Gallatin News Examiner on Friday covered planning efforts to finalize next month's kick-off of Dolly's Imagination Library literacy program in Sumner County, Tenn., the final of the state's 95 counties to implement Dolly's nationwide program. Read more here.
May 12: 'Going' Falling On 'Billboard' Further signaling the end of its chart run, Dolly and Brad Paisley's "When I Get Where I'm Going" this week falls off the Billboard all-genre Hot 100 recurrent chart in the May 20 numbers, it was revealed Thursday. The song had been at No. 25 the previous week on the chart for tunes which have been removed from the main Hot 100 pop list due to chart rules. The song is still at No. 18 for Hot 100 recurrent airplay, down five from the previous week, and as had been reported here earlier, it slips one more to No. 6 for recurrent country singles. Over on the CMT Top Twenty Countdown, the song's video loses three to No. 12 for the week. Paisley's Time Well Wasted, which features the song, remains steady at No. 14 country but slides four to No. 70 pop and comprehensive in its 38th week, falling five to No. 30 Canadian country. Martina McBride's Timeless, featuring Dolly vocals on "I Still Miss Someone," rises three to No. 39 country in its 28th chart week stateside and loses five to No. 44 Canadian country. Kenny Rogers's 21 Number Ones, featuring "Islands In The Stream," inches down one to No. 20 country in its 15th week, three to No. 103 pop and four to No. 107 comprehensive. Up north, it falls two to No. 38 Canadian country. Rod Stewart's Stardust . . . The Great American Songbook: Volume III, featuring his hit Dolly duet of "Baby It's Cold Outside" from a year and a half ago, falls off the top 200 pop and comprehensive albums charts, down from No. 164 on both. On the bluegrass chart, former Dolly backing band and opening act The Grascals see their debut set, The Grascals, which includes Dolly on "Viva Las Vegas," re-enter the 15-position tally at No. 7 for a 22nd week, while Rhonda Vincent's Ragin' Live, featuring "Jolene," remains steady at No. 8 in its 60th week and Sarah Harmer's I'm A Mountain, featuring "Will He Be Waiting For Me," tumbles eight to No. 14 in its 12th week. Rascal Flatts' Me And My Gang gains one to No. 5 pop and remains steady at No. 1 country with 89,000 copies sold in its fifth week, while Phil Vassar's Greatest Hits Volume 1 debuts at No. 2 country, No. 10 pop, with 65,000 units moved in its first week.
'Biography' To Repeat For those who may have missed the premiere of Dolly's two-hour episode of Biography a couple of weeks ago, A&E's sister network The Biography Channel has announced that the program will repeat on that channel at 8 p.m. Eastern June 7.
Play In The Water Dollywood announced this week a special free open house at its adjacent water park, Dollywood's Splash Country, this weekend for season passholders. Passholders and their guests will receive free admission and free parking at the water park from 11 until 3 on Saturday, although the only rides operating that day will be the Bear Mountain Fire Tower and this year's new feature, Fire Tower Falls. The water park opens to the public on May 20.
N.C. Library Note The Mountain Times in Boone, N.C., reports this week on continuing efforts to bring Dolly's nationwide Imagination Library literacy program to Ashe County there. Leaders expect to kick off the project this summer, beginning with the community's children from birth to age 2 before expanding to the standard birth-to-age-5 group served in other areas. Read more here.
May 11: See Dolly And Her Public Service Award You probably couldn't tell from the small photo and video linked from here Tuesday night what the award Dolly received that morning looked like, but thanks to a couple of images from the folks who gave her the honor you can see it is a gorgeous crystal replica of the U.S. Capitol. Dolly was presented with it Tuesday at the Southern Women in Public Service Conference in Nashville for winning the Lindy Boggs Award from The Stennis Center for Public Service for a Southern woman who exemplifies "patriotism, courage, integrity and leadership through public service." See another shot and a larger version of the image at left here. Images courtesy The Stennis Center for Public Service. Used with permission. Thanks!
Paper Offers Props To Dolly Literacy Milestone The Tennessean gives kudos to Dolly and her Imagination Library program this week in an editorial here lauding its expansion to the entire state of Tennessee this summer. The paper defends the nationwide literacy project from critics who say it should only be for poor children instead of its philosophy of treating all children the same and providing books for everyone from birth to age 5 regardless of income. "It's the way the program has functioned and should remain so," the editors opine.
'Going' Gone From 'R&R' After a long run -- and a week at No. 1 -- Dolly's "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Brad Paisley is gone from the Radio & Records chart available this week, it was announced Wednesday. The magazine publishes online just the top five positions on its recurrent chart, which is the list for songs that due to chart rules have been removed from the regular singles tally. The previous week, "Going" had been No. 5 on the recurrent country chart but falls out of the top five this week.
Fan Doc Gets Mass. Showing The Dolly fan documentary For The Love Of Dolly has been added to another festival, its director confirms. The film will screen in Massachusetts at the Provincetown International Film Festival, which will be held June 14-18. An exact date for the showing will be announced later. And the final date has been revealed for the film's previously-announced screening at New York City's NewFest LGBT festival. The movie will be seen there at 6 p.m. June 11 in AMC Theater 6.
More From 'RS' And I'm told that there's more Dolly in the paper edition of the 1,000th issue of Rolling Stone magazine. Her famous cover is shown, she offers some memories of the late Richard Avedon, who took the photo for it, and there's also a brief recap of her career. Thanks, Mark!
May 10: Sugar Hill Boxed Set Coming In Sept. Dolly's three critically-acclaimed roots music CDs will be repackaged this fall in a boxed set which will also include a DVD of her recent music videos, Dollymania is pleased to reveal. Sugar Hill Records has set a tentative release of Sept. 12 for the project, a representative of the label confirmed to the site on Tuesday, adding that the exact date may change. The boxed set will include re-issues of her first three projects for the indie label -- 1999's Grammy-winning bluegrass disc The Grass Is Blue, 2001's Grammy-winning mountain folk set Little Sparrow and 2002's three-time Grammy-nominated traditional country collection Halos & Horns -- in addition to the DVD, which is slated to contain all of her Sugar Hill music videos. Look for more information here as additional details are released in coming months. Image at left from the recording sessions for "The Grass Is Blue" of Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Dolly, Bryan Sutton, Steve Buckingham, Jim Mills and Barry Bales is copyright 1999 Rob Draper, ACS. Photo courtesy Sugar Hill Records.
Dolly Wows Award Crowd Dolly accepted a regional public service honor Tuesday in Nashville with her usual wit and infectious laugh, trying out her jokes on the audience and even belting out a bit of her working woman anthem "9 To 5." Thanks to her national education efforts, she received the Lindy Boggs Award from The Stennis Center for Public Service, recognizing a Southern woman who has shown leadership in the public service arena, with her becoming its first non-political winner. The trophy was handed out at the Southern Women in Public Service Conference in Music City. See a pic and read a brief write-up from Nashville's News Channel 5 here, and watch a fairly lengthy television report here from WKRN with a good deal of Dolly footage from the ceremony.
May 9: 'Going' Down On Billboard, Up On GAC "When I Get Where I'm Going," the former No. 1 hit by Brad Paisley with Dolly, will drop one more place on the May 20 Billboard country recurrent single tally, the magazine announced Monday. The listening audience for the song's airplay fell 700,000 to 14.2 million, sliding it to No. 6 on the tally for songs that have been removed from the main country singles list due to chart rules. Were the two charts combined, the song would have come in at No. 23, compared to the equivalent of No. 22 the previous week. On other charts, Great American Country updated its online list Monday to reflect Friday's Top Twenty Countdown, showing the video increased its standing on the fan-voted chart, rising four to No. 11, although still a long way from its peak at No. 1 for two weeks. (Vote in GAC's countdown for this week here! ) On the European CMA charts, the collaboration falls off the top 20 country airplay singles list in Holland, down from No. 17.
'CW': Dolly Will Win Two ACMs The new issue of Country Weekly is on newsstands this week, and there are two Dolly items. First, there's a pic from the 9 To 5 DVD release party in Hollywood -- although it took place well over a month ago. Secondly, the magazine's experts offer their predictions for this month's Academy of Country Music Awards, and they think Dolly will take home two of the three trophies for which she is nominated. The publication's odds makers give "When I Get Where I'm Going" by Dolly and Brad Paisley a 2-1 chance as their pick for the most likely winner as Vocal Event of the Year and Song of the Year, but they give it just the second-best chances for winning Video of the Year. Awards will be handed out live on CBS May 23.
Fourth GLBT Event Planned Organizers of the unofficial "gay day" gathering held each year at Dollywood and Dollywood's Splash Country have announced the dates for this year's event. "Out at the Park," as it is known, will host its fourth annual gathering July 1-2, with July 1 being at the Pigeon Forge, Tenn., theme park and July 2 at the adjacent water park. "Gay Day" events are unofficial gatherings of primarily gay and lesbian patrons at amusement parks around the country, usually where all participants are encouraged to wear the same color clothing. These occurrences are neither sanctioned nor sponsored by the parks themselves being organized instead by individuals. The most famous of these is held at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., each summer. According to a press release: "Out at the Park is a Gay Day event organized by a not-for-profit organization . . . OUT at the Park is not a politically oriented event. OUT at the Park is simply, a fun, all-ages, social event for all members of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning community, along with all of our friends, families and supporters!" As in previous years, attendees are encouraged to wear red shirts.
So Long 'Reba' There likely won't be another opportunity to see Dolly appear as Realtor "Dolly Majors" on Reba, as word is Friday night's episode was probably the series finale. The talk around Hollywood on Monday was that although the show is by far the WB's top-rated sitcom, its demographics lean too much toward an older audience for the soon-to-launch youth-oriented CW network which will result from this fall's merger of the WB with UPN. Final word will come when the new network announces its schedule on May 18. But executive producer and star Reba McEntire could come out smelling like a very expensive rose. Since the WB had renewed the series for two years and still has a year left on the contract, cancellation would reportedly mean producers would split a cool $20 million from the network to buy out the unfilmed sixth season (similar to the multi-million-dollar payout for the cancellation of Dolly's two-year ABC deal two decades ago after one year on the air). Dolly delighted fans with a guest spot on pal Reba's show near the end of its 2004-05 season and had said she expected to return in the role, although plans to film another guest appearance earlier this year didn't work out before the show concluded filming for the 2005-06 season. The program averaged about 3.4 million viewers this year, down from a 4.2 million average the previous year. Although a minor program by major network standards, those ratings still made it one of the biggest hits ever for the struggling WB network. Read more from CNN here and Broadcasting & Cablehere. Image of Dolly and Reba on the show courtesy The WB.
Hello, Charlie! Fellow country music legend Charlie Pride tells Canada's Star Phoenix newspaper that he's currently recording a new gospel album in Nashville which will include a cover of a Dolly song (he didn't say which one) which will feature vocals from the composer herself. "I think Dolly and I are going to do one," he told the paper. "She wrote this particular song, and she's going to do it with me on the album." Read the full interview here. Thanks, Tony!
Vote For Dolly! Music magazine Rolling Stone is celebrating its 1,000th issue, and part of the fun is to ask readers to select its best cover of all time. Dolly's 1980 cover shot in a Christmas outfit made the top 100, so you may cast a vote this week for it here. Thanks, Mark!
Accepting A Major Honor Don't forget Dolly will be on hand in Music City Tuesday to accept a pretty big award: the Lindy Boggs Award from The Stennis Center for Public Service. Honoring a Southern woman who exemplifies "patriotism, courage, integrity and leadership through public service," Dolly will become the award's first non-political recipient. Previous honorees have included first ladies, governors, senators and other leaders in the political arena. Its most recent honorees have been Lady Bird Johnson, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and former Attorney General Janet Reno. Dolly, being honored for her education efforts including the Imagination Library, will receive the award Tuesday morning in a ceremony in Nashville featuring a speech by good friend Gov. Phil Bredesen (D-Tenn.) as the closing session of the Southern Women in Public Service Conference. Her actual award presentation will be made by U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey. Read the Stennis Center's profile of Dolly here. See some coverage of the conference from Nashville TV station WKRN here.
May 8: CMT Update Continuing its decline on the CMT Top Twenty Countdown, "When I Get Where I'm Going" by Brad Paisley and Dolly dipped six more spots to No. 9 last week. And on the Power Source Christian country singles chart, the former No. 1 collaboration falls off the 20-position list, down from No. 20 the previous week. Great American Country (GAC), where the video had been No. 15 the previous week, has not updated its chart online, and since I don't get that network on my cable, I don't know where it is there this week. Cast your vote for the video here for next week's GAC list!
What A Clown! Ever wonder the story behind that photo in Dolly's Chasing Rainbows museum at Dollywood where she has polka dots painted on her face standing next to funnyman Dom DeLuise? Well, DeLuise himself tells it in an interview published over the weekend with the San Francisco Chronicle. Read it here.
Hooray For Doggywood! Dollywood's Doggywood pet sitting center gets much praise in a story on the growing popularity of pet-friendly vacations from The Pittsburg Post-Gazettehere.
May 6: Kristin Really, Really Wants To Play Dolly Tony Award-winning Broadway actress/singer Kristin Chenoweth, who also made a name for herself on television the past couple of years on The West Wing, this week repeated her desire to play Dolly on the New York stage. Knoxville News Sentinel columnist Terry Morrow says Chenoweth told him Dolly needs to hurry up and finish composing a stage musical based on her life story. "All I can say is she had better write (the show) and offer me the part because I was born to play her . . . It would be a dream come true" she told the newspaper, which also noted that Reese Witherspoon has also expressed an interest in portraying Dolly. Also, the piece gives the first mention that the Dolly autobiographical show could be on Broadway as early as sometime in 2007, which I doubt because that is the same time that her stage adaptation of 9 To 5 is scheduled to premiere there, and it's possible but unlikely both shows would open at about the same time. Read more here.
Another Great '9 To 5' DVD Review Speaking of Dolly's film debut, the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., News Observer selects the special anniversary 9 To 5: Sexist, Egotistical, Lying, Hypocritical Bigot Edition as this week's top DVD pick, noting that more than a quarter-decade later the film "remains hilarious." The reviewer says: "Farcical, fetching and darn near anarchic, this whacked-out comedy goes gonzo on office politics and workplace dynamics only to eventually reveal the female solidarity and empowerment at its core, as these sisters do it not only for themselves, but for their fellow, female wage slaves." It also makes a funny point about a Dolly joke that appears in the gag reel. Read the full review here.
'Going' Gone From Pop 100 Tally After an impressive run, "When I Get Where I'm Going" by Dolly and Brad Paisley is officially off all major Billboard charts, the magazine's May 13 numbers released Thursday confirm. The song has fallen off the genre-specific Pop 100 tally, down from No. 87 the previous week. It had already been removed under chart rules from both the all-genre Hot 100 pop chart and country singles list, switching to the "recurrent" charts for each. On the Hot 100 recurrent list, the tune dips six to No. 25, but it remains steady at No. 13 on the Hot 100 recurrent airplay tally. As was previously reported here, the collaboration loses one to No. 5 country recurrent. Paisley's Time Well Wasted, containing the duet, inches up one to No. 14 country, seven to No. 66 pop and eight to No. 66 comprehensive in its 37th week, slipping two to No. 25 Canadian country. Martina McBride's Timeless, featuring her own Dolly collaboration on "I Still Miss Someone," dips one to No. 42 country in its 27th chart week in the U.S. but gains three to No. 39 Canadian country. Kenny Rogers's 21 Number Ones, with "Islands In The Stream," inches up five to No. 19 country in its 14th week, 10 to No. 100 pop and No. 103 comprehensive. In Canada, it moves up one to No. 36 country. Rod Stewart's Stardust . . . The Great American Songbook: Volume III, with the No. 2 adult contemporary hit with Dolly on "Baby It's Cold Outside," tumbles 51 points to No. 164 on the pop albums chart and 47 places to No. 164 comprehensive; the 2004 collection had re-entered the top 200 the previous week following the British rocker's appearance on American Idol. On the bluegrass chart, Rhonda Vincent's Ragin' Live, and its "Jolene" cover, loses one to No. 8 in its 59th week, while Sarah Harmer's I'm A Mountain, with a cover of Dolly's "Will He Be Waiting For Me," drops one to No. 6 in its 11th week. Bettye LaVette's I've Got My Own Hell To Raise, featuring her cover of "Little Sparrow," falls back off the 15-position blues albums chart, down from No. 15 the previous week, its 28th. After three weeks at No. 1 pop, Rascal Flatts' Me And My Gang slides five to No. 6 but remains steady at No. 1 country with 111,000 copies sold in its fourth week, and Toby Keith's White Trash With Money remains steady at to No. 2 country but falls eight to No. 12 pop in its third chart week.
Fan Doc's S.F. Date Confirmed The screening date and location for next month's San Francisco engagement of the Dolly fan documentary For The Love of Dolly has been set, the project's director confirms. The film will be shown at 5:30 p.m. June 17 in the Victoria Theatre as part of Frameline30: The San Francisco LGBT International Film Festival.
Dolly In Print Thanks to Jon for alerting me that Dolly's got an Academy Award shot in the May issue of OUT magazine. She and Transamerica director Duncan Tucker are shown at the Vanity Fair Oscar party on the publication's last page, featuring pictures from various events across the country. (And don't forget that the DVD featuring the music video and a behind-the-scenes featurette on Dolly's Oscar-nominated tune from the film hits stores May 23. Get your copy here!)
May 4: Paper: Library Best Education Plan In Lifetime Knoxville weekly Metro Pulse gives Dolly's Imagination Library literacy program a big thumbs up in an editorial this week, with the writer saying: "Imagination Library is, quite simply, the best idea that has emerged in the field of education in my lifetime. And I've been around a while." Read more here! And across the mountains in North Carolina, The Smoky Mountain News reports here that this weekend's annual Dogwood Run by the Rotary Club will raise funds for the local branch of the program in Swain County.
Steady On 'R&R' Recurrent List "When I Get Where I'm Going" by Dolly and Brad Paisley remains steady this week at No. 5 on the Radio & Records country recurrent singles list, it was announced Wednesday. This is the list for songs that due to chart rules have been removed from the regular singles tally. Were it still on the main country singles chart, it would have come in at No. 22 this week, compared to the equivalent of No. 21 last week.
Sing, Sing A Song Thanks to Patrick and Mike for alerting me to a cute CNN story Wednesday about two ladies who've written a humorous country song about the tiny suburban mothers they see driving huge SUVs around their community. They say their ultimate dream is for Dolly to record the tune. Take a look, and a listen, here.
18-Year-Old 'Stampeding' To Fame Dolly's Dixie Stampede dinner theater this week released a profile on Dusti Crain, its youngest female Roman rider -- the ones who jump through the hoops of fire. Read it here.
Former Chef Recognized Southwest Florida's News Press has a nice little profile on Dolly's former personal chef, who currently serves as the cook for a soup kitchen in Lehigh, Fla. Read it here.
May 3: Just Don't Call Her That! Two pop icons of the modern woman, Dolly and Madonna, are compared and contrasted in a profile in the new "Style & Substance" issue of the magazine Bitch: feminist response to pop culture.The piece includes brief comments from both your webmaster and Tai Uhlmann, the director of the Dolly fan documentary For The Love Of Dolly, but the majority of the article focuses on the writer's own observations about Dolly, her image, her personality and her persona. "In their own very different ways," she notes, "both women make the mutability of fashion and femininity central to their work; for their many and varied fans, parsing the messages is an extended (even lifelong) project that not only has personal meaning, but also uncovers crucial ideas and biases about how we define identify, authenticity and success." The issue is on newsstands nationwide now.
Fan Flick Feted In Variety Speaking of the fan doc, the film has earned a quite positive review from entertainment industry standard Variety, which praises here Uhlmann's "tricky balancing act." The reviewer notes: "Without attempting to satirize or romanticize its subjects, docu offers a mostly sympathetic but never condescending view of devoted zealots." After having screened to enthusiastic crowds at international film festivals in Miami, Nashville and Dallas in recent weeks, the film next hits the LGBT circuit with showings at film festivals in New York and Los Angeles next month and San Francisco in July.
Reminder: Vote For Dolly! This is your last week to sign up for free as an Associate Member of the Academy of Country Music and vote for Dolly and Brad Paisley's "When I Get Where I'm Going" for Video of the Year, the only category which will include votes from the public. Also, those who cast their ballot will be able to fill out a poll (which has no impact on the awards) of whom they want to win the night's other awards, which will enter them in a contest to win a guitar autographed by Gretchen Wilson, Big & Rich, Julie Roberts, Josh Gracin and Josh Turner. Dolly's collaboration with Paisley netted her three nominations this year. In addition to video, the duo is up for Vocal Event of the Year and Song of the Year. The ACMs will be awarded in Las Vegas on CBS May 23. Visit the ACM site here for more info!
European Update Things changed dramatically on radio overseas this week for two Dolly tracks. The Brad Paisley collaboration on "When I Get Where I'm Going" tumbled out of the top 20 country singles airplay charts in the U.K., down from No. 3 the previous week, and France, down from No. 11, the European CMA announced Tuesday. In Holland, the tune fell eight to No. 17. Also, "I Still Miss Someone" with Martina McBride fell out of the top 20 in Holland, Germany and Austria, down from Nos. 11, 9 and 1, respectively.
May 2: 'Going' Slipping On 'Billboard' The Brad Paisley and Dolly smash "When I Get Where I'm Going" will inch down one notch on the May 13 Billboard country recurrent single tally, the magazine revealed Monday. With an audience of 14.9 million, down 1.1 million from the previous week, it will come in at No. 5 on the chart for songs that have been removed from the main country singles list due to chart rules. Were the two charts combined, the song would have come in at No. 22, which would have compared with the equivalent of No. 23 the previous week.
TV Reminder Don't forget to catch the eats at Dollywood on The Food Network Wednesday morning in an episode of The Best Of . . . Fun Foods airing at 9:30 a.m. And speaking of the park's food, remember to enter the contest to win a barbeque with Dolly herself at your house by reserving your copy of Dolly's new cookbook, Dolly's Dixie Fixin's, here! Proceeds benefit her Imagination Library literacy program of the Dollywood Foundation. Note: Please be aware that the deadline to enter the contest has passed, so entried are no longer being accepted. You may still, however, order the book here WITHOUT being entered in the contest.
May 1: Report: Dolly To Appear On Disney TV Guide Online gossip columnist Michael Ausiello reported here over the weekend that a source tells him Dolly has signed on for a guest appearance this summer on the Disney Channel hit Hannah Montana. The show already has one Dolly connection: Billy Ray Cyrus, who appeared on Dolly's "Romeo" single and video. The show's star, Miley Cyrus, is his real-life daughter, and he appears on it as her songwriting father and manager. Miley's character, also named "Miley," is a preteen who moved from Tennessee to California, where her friends at school don't know that in her spare time she performs on stage as a pop star with the stage name "Hannah Montana."
CMT Recap If you missed Dolly's cute segments on CMT's Insider over the weekend, you may still have time to catch the program at both 2 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Monday morning. First, she appeared in a profile of some of the show's funniest moments when host Katie Cook literally ran into her during an interview in her dressing room. Then, she showed up to wish the program a happy 100th episode, although she kept messing up the word "hundredth." Finally, a story showed her from the Dollywood season opening both in her Parade of Nations genie outfit and on the catwalk for the Dolly's Closet dress shop fashion show in addition to a brief interview about clothes filmed just before the fashion show.
Vincent Preview Available Now Can't wait until Rhonda Vincent's new CD, All American Bluegrass Girl, hits stores on May 23 to hear Dolly's harmony vocals on the track "Heartbreaker's Alibi"? Well, you don't have to! CMT.com over the weekend posted streaming audio of the entire CD, including Dolly's guest track. Take a listen here. And remember to reserve your copy of the album here (and it comes out the same day as the DVD of Transamerica featuring Dolly's music video for the Oscar-nominated "Travelin' Thru" as well as a behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the video -- reserve a copy of the DVD here)!
The results of Tuesday night's Academy of Country Music Awards, which saw Dolly take home two trophies with Brad Paisley, dominated entertainment coverage Wednesday. Country Weekly reported in its online edition 
For the fourth year in a row, Dolly will attend the annual kick-off for the KidsFest celebration at 
The CW, the new television network resulting from the merger of UPN and the WB, on Thursday formally announced its first fall schedule, which included the surprise revelation that Reba McEntire's sitcom, Reba, will return for a sixth season. Although preliminary reports had said that while it was the WB's highest-rated sitcom the new CW didn't plan to bring it back because its demographics leaned toward older viewers, the network apparently didn't want to shell out the reported $20 million it would have to pay producers to cancel it. Instead, the show will have a 13-episode final season, a little more than half the number of episodes usually included in a full season. Dolly had made a guest spot on the program a little over a year ago and was trying to finalize plans for a return for another appearance before the most recent season ended, although that didn't work out. She'll now have 13 final episodes to try and schedule a return visit or two. Image of Dolly and Reba on the show courtesy The WB.
You probably couldn't tell from the small photo and video linked from here Tuesday night what the award Dolly received that morning looked like, but thanks to a couple of images from the folks who gave her the honor you can see it is a gorgeous crystal replica of the U.S. Capitol. Dolly was presented with it Tuesday at the Southern Women in Public Service Conference in Nashville for winning the Lindy Boggs Award from 
Dolly's three critically-acclaimed roots music CDs will be repackaged this fall in a boxed set which will also include a DVD of her recent music videos, Dollymania is pleased to reveal. 
The new issue of Country Weekly is on newsstands this week, and there are two Dolly items. First, there's a pic from the 
Organizers of the unofficial "gay day" gathering held each year at 
Dolly's nationwide