May 28: 'Please' Hits No. 1 Bluegrass Rhonda Vincent was at Dollywood over the weekend performing at the Barbeque & Bluegrass Festival but took time to celebrate on social media that Bluegrass Today magazine on Friday released the new bluegrass radio survey and that her duet with Dolly on "Please" from Restoration: Reimagining The Songs Of Elton John And Bernie Taupin jumped from No. 18 to No. 1 on the bluegrass singles chart with 319 spins compared with 150 the previous week.
Overseas Chart Updates The Deadpool 2 soundtrack with Dolly's "9 To 5" debuts at No. 9 on the Australian pop albums chart and No. 3 soundtracks, No. 12 compilation albums on the U.K. charts but doesn't crack the top 100 pop albums there. The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe gains two on the British country compilation albums chart in its 89th chart week to No. 9, it was announced Friday. On the same tally, Emmylou 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 Linda Ronstadt) holds steady at No. 14 as Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) falls out of the top 20, down from No. 9, and Harris's Original Album Series, Volume 2 re-enters the top 20 at No. 15.
Dollywood Makes Yahoo Best Theme Park List Yahoo over the weekend shared a "definitive power ranking" of America's theme parks with Dollywood at No. 4. Read the full list here.
May 22: Video From Hospital Dedication Released
The Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt on Monday released a video and press release on Dolly's visit last week to dedicate the butterfly garden at the facility in honor of her niece Hannah and in recognition of her $1 million gift. Watch the video in the media player above.
Miranda Lambert Joins Soundtrack Dumplin' soundtrack producer Linda Perry on Monday posted a photo of herself with Dolly and Miranda Lambert in the studio to her personal Instagram account, indicating Lambert has joined Miley Cyrus, Sia, Rhonda Vincent, Mavis Staples, and Macy Gray as Dolly's collaborators on the CD.
May 21: More Coverage From Women's Music Conference
A great selection of footage from Dolly and Linda Perry's address in Nashville last week has been posted online. Watch it on YouTube here or in the media player above.
Pictures From Hospital Visit Dolly's social media team over the weekend shared some photos from her appearance last week at Nashville's Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. Check them out here.
U.K. Newspaper Profiles Dollywood Britain' s Daily Mail recently sent a writer over to Dollywood to check out what the park has to offer. Enjoy the story here.
U.K. Chart Updates The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe gains three on the British country compilation albums chart in its 88th chart week to No. 11, it was announced Friday. On the same tally, Emmylou 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 Linda Ronstadt) rises three to No. 14 as Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) rises four to No. 9 and Harris's Original Album Series, Volume 2 falls back off the top 20, down from No. 20.
May 18: Dolly Returns To Children's Hospital To Honor Niece Dolly and several family members on Thursday made their second appearance in seven months at Vanderbilt University Children's Hospital. This time was for the dedication of the Hannah Dennison Butterfly Garden at the facility in appreciation for Dolly's $1 million gift in honor of Hannah and her parents which she announced at the previous visit in October. The celebration was timed for Hannah's 30th birthday this weekend. Hannah, who was diagnosed with leukemia at age 4, was treated for six years at the hospital. Her parents, Dolly's sister Rachel George and Rachel's ex-husband Richard Dennison, who has been part of Dolly's band for four decades, joined Dolly for an interview on the facility's Seacrest Studio for a Q&A with patients. Dolly told them she plans to pop in unannounced in the future to entertain children in the hospital whenever she feels like it. Coverage included NewsChannel 5
here and The Tennesseanhere.
Dollywood Bluegrass Fest Coming Dollywood soon opens this year's Barbeque & Bluegrass festival, announcing Thursday it will be sponsored by Bush's Beans. Performances kick off May 25 and include The Gibson Brothers that day and Rhonda Vincent & The Rage May 26-27, Dailey & Vincent May 29-30, Molly Tuttle May 31, The Seldom Scene June 5 and Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver June 7.
May 17: A Few New 'Dumplin'' Details Revealed Variety on Wednesday covered Dolly and Linda Perry's talk in Nashville from Tuesday, revealing three additional details about their Dumplin' soundtrack: the number of newly re-recorded older Dolly songs are six (in addition to six new Dolly/Perry co-written tracks featuring guest artists with Dolly) and that the guest artists include Miley Cyrus and Sia (in addition to previously-reported Rhonda Vincent, Mavis Staples, and Macy Gray). Read the full article here.
May 16: 'Billboard' Talks 'Dumplin'' Soundtrack Although details from their panel discussion at Tuesday's Music's Leading Ladies Speak Out conference had not been reported on as of press time, Billboard on Tuesday revealed a little more on the Dumplin' soundtrack Linda Perry produced for Dolly which will be released on Dolly Records and RCA Nashville. The article revealed Dolly executive produced the album and that it features six new songs co-written by Dolly and Perry with various guest artists joining Dolly on those collaborations as well as "several" newly recorded versions of classic Dolly songs. The story also noted the movie is currently in negotiation with a distributor for release and that the soundtrack will come out later this year. Although the magazine did not name any of the guest vocalists, Dollymania.net has reported Rhonda Vincent, Mavis Staples, and Macy Gray are among the collaborators. Read more here.
Stella Headed To BBC Cooking Competition Dolly's younger sister Stella was announced Tuesday as one of the new season's stars on Britain's Celebrity MasterChef program. The BBC has not revealed the season's premiere date yet. Learn more from The Expresshere.
May 15: New Dolly Musical To Premiere In November Dolly has tried her hand again at writing a Broadway musical which will premiere this fall in Minnesota. Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol moves the classic Charles Dickens tale to East Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains where mining company boss Ebenezer Scrooge meets the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future set to an all-new original score by Dolly. A live acoustic band will join the cast for a "sneak-peek staged reading" for the musical's world premiere at the concert hall of St. Paul's Ordway Theater. Tickets are available here and a Facebook event page has been posted here. There will be evening performances Nov. 17 and 18 and a matinee Nov. 18. There has not been an announcement as to whether Dolly will be in attendance for the premiere or whether the show's intended future is Broadway, Dollywood, a national tour, or runs in other theatre cities such as Los Angeles or Chicago.
Splash Country Readies For Season Dollywood Splash Country is prepping for its 18th season starting Saturday. New this season is a DJ on the wave pool deck on Tuesdays, new menu items, new landscaping, new lounge chairs, new Luxury Loungers (in addition to the existing Retreats and Canopies currently available for rent), self-serve ticket kiosks, shade structures over queue lines, and a new platinum level for its TimeSaver H2O. Also, those with accessibility issues will be able to use new aquatic wheelchairs and adult changing tables. Special ticket prices are available this week online. The water park operates through Sept. 3.
May 14: Dolly To Address Nashville Conference Tuesday The Music Business Association on Friday announced Dolly and Linda Perry will close out the Music's Leading Ladies Speak Out conference at the Omni in Nashville this week with a 4 p.m. discussion of their songwriting processes. The two are currently collaborating on the Dumplin' film soundtrack, which the announcement revealed will be released on Dolly Records/RCA Nashville. Music Business Association President James Donio said in the release: "Dolly and Linda are two of the most successful and influential artists, songwriters, producers, and businesswomen in the world, and we are honored to have them close out our third annual Music's Leading Ladies Speak Out program. Their phenomenal work has broken down many barriers for women in the industry, and we can't wait to hear about their respective paths to music business success and advice for young women looking to reach the same heights they have attained."
'McKlusky' Also Gets Blu-Ray Treatment This July Kino International/KL Studio Classics over the weekend revealed that in addition to the previously-announced DVD re-issue of Dolly's 2002 film Frank McKlusky, C.I. on July 17, the movie will also be released for the first time ever on Blu-Ray the same day. Reserve your copy here!
May 12: Dolly Helps Girls' Charity Auction Dolly has joined numerous other female artists in supporting an online auction for Girls Rock Camp Alliance, a nonprofit which works to provide summer camps and education opportunities for female, transgender and gender non-binary youth. Learn more about the auction, which continues through Wednesday afternoon, in a story from Billboardhere. Dolly donated two tour t-shirts, a bandana, and two autographed CDs for the auction. They are available here, here, and here.
U.K. Chart Updates The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe rises four on the British country compilation albums chart in its 87th chart week to No. 14, it was announced Friday. On the same tally, Emmylou 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 Linda Ronstadt) drops six to No. 17 as Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) gains two to No. 13 and Harris's Original Album Series, Volume 2 re-enters the top 20 at No. 20.
May 9: Dolly Dedicates Senior Center To Parents
Dolly on Monday surprised members at Sevierville's senior citizen center to rededicate the facility under the new name My People Senior Activity Center in memory of her parents. She popped in on exercise, woodworking, and quilting classes and took part in a rededication ceremony in the facility's dining room where she sang "My Mountains, My Home" and took questions from the audience. Check out footage from the event courtesy the Facebook page of WVLT reporter Kyle Grainger here or in the media player above. Coverage included The Knoxville News Sentinelhere and here as well as the Center's official Facebook page here and Dolly's official website here.
U.S. Chart Update, Nelson Extends Record The tribute album Restoration: Reimagining The Songs Of Elton John And Bernie Taupin, featuring Dolly and Rhonda Vincent on "Please," falls out of the top 50 country albums chart in the May 12 Billboard numbers, it was announced Tuesday, down from No. 39 in its third chart week. Also on the tally, Willie Nelson extends his lead over Dolly for the artist with the most top 10 albums, as his Last Man Standing debuts at No. 3 to register his 51st top 10 album on the country chart compared to Dolly's 43 (or 45). The magazine once again published an incorrect total for Dolly here, saying she is tied for second place with Loretta Lynn and George Strait at 40 top 10 albums each. (Your webmaster researched the magazine's online archives to identify the source of the error and confirmed the publication mistakenly identified two of her top 10 Porter Wagoner duet albums -- Just Between You And Me and Once More -- as Porter solo projects and mistakenly combined the chart histories of two similarly-titled duet albums -- 1974's Porter 'N' Dolly and 1980's Porter & Dolly -- under the non-existent title Porter And Dolly so that it only counted as one top 10 instead of two. Correcting those errors would raise her total to 43. Your webmaster notified the publication of the research, so hopefully they won't make the error again. The publication also does not count the 1984 top 10 The Winning Hand with Nelson, Brenda Lee, and Kris Kristofferson since the chart credited it as "Various Artists" instead of the four performers' names nor her top 10 The Best
Little Whorehouse in Texas since it was credited as "soundtrack" instead of the performers' names, making them ineligible for her total under the magazine's rules, but if they were counted that would raise her total to 45 but also increase Nelson's total to 52.)
May 7: Dolly Pops In At Dollywood Dolly made a couple of brief appearances over the weekend at her Dollywood theme park. On Saturday, attendees saw her in one park tour parade through the grounds at around 2 p.m. although rain moved in later in the afternoon, which prevented a rumored planned second park tour. On Sunday, she made a surprise appearance at the revamped "My People" show at 3:30 p.m. to welcome attendees before sitting in the audience to watch the performance for the first time herself. She opted to remain in Nashville on Friday – when Cal Ripken Jr. replaced her after 32 years as grand marshal of the annual Pigeon Forge spring parade – and reports indicate attendance dropped dramatically from the up to 50,000 who normally came each year to see Dolly. In related news, Birmingham's CBS 42 last week broadcast an interview with Dolly from the park's opening weekend in March. Watch it here.
Overseas Chart Updates Restoration: Reimagining The Songs Of Elton John And Bernie Taupin, featuring Dolly and Rhonda Vincent on "Please," drops 28 places on the Australian country albums chart in its third chart week to No. 40, it was announced Sunday. Also overseas, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe gains two on the British country compilation albums chart in its 86th chart week to No. 18, it was announced Friday. On the same tally, Emmylou 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 Linda Ronstadt) loses two to No. 11 as Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) drops three to No. 15.
May 4: Dolly Visits Dollywood Catch Dolly at Dollywood on Saturday, where she may pop into a show or two and take a park tour or two if the forecasted rain holds off. In related news, The Knoxville News-Sentinel interviewed Cal Ripken Jr. about replacing Dolly as grand marshal of the annual Pigeon Forge parade Friday here.
'Frank McKlusky, C.I.' Gets DVD Re-Release Dolly's 2002 movie Frank McKlusky, C.I. is being re-released on DVD July 17 by KL Studio Classics, it was announced this week. The original theatrical trailer will be included as a special feature. The comedy – which starred Dave Sheridan as an insurance claims adjustor whose father (Randy Quaid) was an Evil Knievel-type daredevil now in a coma due to a stunt gone wrong and Dolly as his mother who was overprotective due to her husband's accident – opened in limited release in several Florida cities but tested so poorly with audiences that the studio chose to release it direct-to-video instead. Reserve your copy here.
Fonda Talks '9 To 5' Part Two Jane Fonda confirmed to The Canadian Press that the sequel to 9 To 5 is a go. She revealed she is executive producer of the project being written by Patricia Resnick and Rashida Jones. Read more here.
Colbert Takes On Trump '9 To 5' Dolly fan and late night host Stephen Colbert this week lampooned President Donald Trump's half-day work schedule by re-writing Dolly's "9 To 5" in his honor. Watch the performance courtesy Timehere.
'Deadpool 2' Features '9 To 5' The filmmakers behind Deadpool 2 on Thursday announced the songs that will be featured in the movie and on the official soundtrack – including Dolly's classic "9 To 5." See the entire track listing from Billboardhere and get the soundtrack May 18 here.
Drag 'Magnolias' Comes To SF San Francisco area folks will want to head out to The Castro Theatre on Saturday for two performances of the drag version of Steel Magnolias: "Steel Dragnolias" starring Peaches Christ, Heklina, Alaska, and Coco Peru, The San Francisco Gate reported here.
New Orleans Dolly Walk Held Several Dolly look-a-likes marched in New Orleans this week to celebrate the new book What Would Dolly Do? ,
NOLA.com reported here.
Elton John Tribute Chart Update The tribute album Restoration: Reimagining The Songs Of Elton John And Bernie Taupin, featuring Dolly and Rhonda Vincent on "Please," sees mixed results on the May 5 Billboard charts, it was announced Tuesday. The CD falls 25 spots to No. 39 country in its third chart week and off the top 200 pop albums chart, down from No. 95.
