July 31: 'Blue Smoke' Looks At No. 3 U.K. For Eighth Chart Week Mid-week chart updates from the U.K. have Dolly's Blue Smoke slipping one to No. 3 on sales through Wednesday. As of Tuesday, it was also at No. 3 with 3,400 copies sold (Wednesday's sales total was not available at press time). The set was No. 2 on the British pop albums chart last week. The final charts for the week will be released there on Sunday. In related news, Dolly's management has announced that "Lay Your Hands On Me" will be released as a single in the U.K., following "Home" and "Try."
Fonda: No Dolly For Netflix Show Jane Fonda has shot down the idea Dolly may appear anytime soon on the new Netflix series she has with their fellow 9 To 5 co-star Lily Tomlin. Asked by The Wrap about chances Dolly would make a cameo, Fonda said no because it is important for the two actresses to differentiate the series from their movie. She said if they continue past two or three seasons and the series becomes well-established, it could be possible that Dolly might be able to guest star as herself for an episode. Read the interview here.
July 28: 'Blue Smoke' Snags New U.K. Peak As was reported here on Friday as a likelihood, the Official Chart Company in the U.K. on Sunday revealed that Blue Smoke has reached yet another career-high position for Dolly on the British pop albums charts, gaining one this week to No. 2 in its seventh chart week since release. The album remains at No. 1 U.K. country compilation albums and falls 13 to No. 40 digital albums. In a press release, Dolly reacted to the news: "Wow, Number 2! I am so excited. They say when you are Number 2, you try harder. Thanks to all the fans out there, as this would not be possible without all of your love and support. Thanks again!" Her The Tour Collection loses eight to No. 19 country compilations and Ultimate falls out of the top 20 on the same list, down from No. 16, while Emmylou Harris's Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) re-enters that tally at No. 17 and her Original Album Series, Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony) re-enters at No. 10. Down Under, The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 dips two to No. 31 in its 340th week on the top 40 Australian country albums chart.
Revamped Official Website Coming Dolly's overall official website, DollyParton.com, has posted a message alerting fans to stay tuned for a new revised site coming soon. No timetable has been announced for the new site to debut. Dolly's official music website, DollyPartonEntertainment.com, was itself revamped just a few weeks ago, just months after changing its URL from DollyPartonMusic.net.
July 26: 'Blue Smoke' Could Hit No. 2 In U.K. Sunday Friday's chart update overseas showed that Dolly could be headed for yet another career-high peak for Blue Smoke. With the week nearly over, the album is currently the second-best-selling pop album of the week in the U.K. at 8,700 copies, about 400 more than the No. 3 album. The project is currently in its sixth week of release overseas and is enjoying its second consecutive week at its now-peak position of No. 3. It won't go to No. 1 this week, though, as it is about 14,000 copies behind the current No. 1 title. The week's official chart, based on final sales through the weekend, will be released on Sunday. On other charts, Real . . . Dolly Parton falls back off the Irish pop top 100 albums, down from No. 84. Her video for "Home" from Blue Smoke loses three this week at No. 14 in its fifth week on the GAC top 20 countdown in the U.S. You may vote once per day for the video here.
Rappers: We Smoked At Dolly's Crib The Beastie Boys claim they smoked pot with Bob Dylan at Dolly's house. The story seems odd, so it may be made up, but in talking about the 25th anniversary of their album Paul's Boutique, they said the track "Chillin' With Bob Dylan" was based on a true experience where they lit a joint with Dylan at a Christmas party held at Dolly's house. Read more from Yahoo's music blog here. (Dolly has said she's met Bob Dylan a couple of times over the years but that their personalities never meshed, so it seems odd she would have had him, much less rappers the Beastie Boys, at her home for a Christmas party around 1988.)
Tomlin Teases Dolly Guest Spot, Maybe Bustle notes Lily Tomlin was enigmatic in a Vanity Fair interview when asked whether Dolly could make an appearance on her and Jane Fonda's new Netflix series, responding: "Dolly. Yes, we need our Dolly. She might [show up], who knows." Read more here.
Dolly Considers Recording 'Mud' Song Contact Music reports that Dolly said in The Sun recently that organizers of the Glastonbury festival, where she debuted a spoken word song called "Mud" inspired by the festival's legendary muck, are talking about making the song an annual occurrence at the event and having a different artist perform it every year. In addition, she might record a version of it to release. Read more here.
Another Interview Posted Edge On The Net this week re-posted a Dolly interview with South Florida Gay News. Take a look here.
July 25: 'Rolling Stone' Debuts Dolly's New Tennessee Commercial
As promised, the next spot in the new "Made In Tennessee" advertising campaign to promote tourism to Dolly's home state features Dolly herself. The video debuted Thursday on Rolling Stone's country website here (it is also viewable in the media player above). In its release, she told the magazine: "When I think of 'Made in Tennessee,' I think of myself because I'm definitely made in Tennessee. But I think of the music made in Tennessee, the memories made in Tennessee. I just think it's a wonderful place to be from." The clip starts out with her tuning her acoustic guitar, then she uses it to accompany herself singing "My Tennessee Mountain Home" as a Nashville family readies for a trip to East Tennessee and visits several places in that area, including Dolly's various tourist attractions there.
U.S., Danish Chart Updates For 'Blue Smoke' Dolly's Blue Smoke continues its U.S. fall on the Aug. 2 Billboard charts that came out on Thursday. The CD stays on the top 50 country albums chart in its 10th week but dips eight spots to No. 45. Also, thanks to Claus for alerting me that the title this week falls off the top 40 pop albums chart in Denmark, down from one week at No. 19.
New Interview From Across The Pond London's The Guardian has a great new interview with Dolly in its "30 Minutes With" series of stories. Read it here. In other interview coverage, FOX News this week published an excerpt on her faith from Dolly's Country Woman magazine interview. Check it out here.
Dolly Contributes To Kenny Exhibit At Hall Of Fame The Country Music Hall of Fame is readying to premiere its new exhibit, "Kenny Rogers: Through The Years," which runs Aug. 15-June 14. Not only will the exhibit feature a Dolly outfit (which she wore on her Dolly show to sing "Islands In The Stream" with Rogers on the episode where he was her guest), but it will also have a companion book with the same title as the exhibit featuring a forward written by Dolly herself about her friend. The book, published by the Country Music Foundation Press, will be available in the Museum Store and website. Read more from Monsters & Criticshere.
July 24: Midweek U.K. Charts Show One Digit Drop For Dolly Midweek chart updates from the U.K. show Dolly's Blue Smoke is currently at No. 4 with 5,200 copies sold in the first half of the week. The final chart for the full week will be released Sunday. Last week, the midweek tally had Dolly falling to No. 5, but her sales increased enough in the week's second half that when the final numbers came out over the weekend she had maintained her career-high No. 3 pop position overseas for a second week.
Dollypalooza Coming To New York City Inspired by Knoxville's Night of 1,000 Dollys, New York party promoter Bevin Branlandingham has scheduled a Dollypalooza tribute show in the Big Apple on Sept. 5 (get it? "9-5"). The 11:45 p.m. show takes place at Littlefield in Brooklyn with $12 early advance tickets, $15 advance, $20 at the door. Applications for performers will be accepted through Aug. 10 and are available here. Confirmed talent thus far ranges from drag queens to burlesque legend World Famous *BOB* and performance artist/singer Nath Ann Carrera. Tickets are available here and its Facebook event page is here.
Dolly Graces Cover Of 'Bust' Magazine Thanks to Mike for alerting me that Dolly has an 8-page spread in the July issue of Bust magazine with an interview and photos. Check out the cover here!
Google Adds Dollywood Street Views Google Maps has added Street Views of Dollywood and Dollywood's Splash Country, it was announced on Wednesday. The images were captured by Google officials in August on a day when the parks were closed. "We're excited to be included in Google's Street View program," said Craig Ross, President of The Dollywood Company, in a press release. "Our guests now have the opportunity to tour both of our beautiful parks and see Dollywood's world-famous attractions before they arrive. We hope it serves as an aid to assist them as they plan their visit." Check out the theme park's Street View here and the water park's here. In related news, Knoxville's Local 8 News reports that the park's fireworks show for its Great American Summer has boosted attendance. Read more here.
In Memoriam: Bill Rehrig Bill Rehrig, fiddler for Dolly's Travelin' Family Band in the mid-1970s, has died. He was 75. In addition to being a touring musician, Rehrig also served as road manager for several acts, most notably Eddie Rabbit. Read more from The Tennesseanhere.
'9 To 5' Gets The Lego Treatment A bored parent and child decided to have some Lego fun and put together a stop-animation video of Dolly's "9 To 5" which starts with office workers and ends with the cast of Star Wars. Check it out here or in the media player below.
July 22: 'Blue Smoke' Passes 111,000 Copies Overseas Sales figures released Monday showed Dolly's Blue Smoke last week sold 15,408 copies in the U.K., bringing its cumulative total since release there six weeks ago to 111,577. As was reported here Sunday night, the set on Friday was certified gold by BPI for passing 100,000 units in Britain and maintained its peak position of No. 3 on the U.K. pop albums chart. In a press release issued Monday, Dolly's manager Danny Nozell responded to the news of the gold record, saying: "Dolly could not be any happier. She has worked very hard over the past several years to create the momentum that we have going. Everyone at Dolly Records and Sony Music has done an outstanding job with making Dolly's new music available and the sales prove it." Sony Music Senior Marketing Director Faye Donaldson added: "Blue Smoke – The Best Of is officially Gold in the UK, which is a massive achievement for Dolly Parton and the team. The response to Dolly after her Glastonbury performance has been amazing and having new music available at the same time has created a reaction that I've never seen before. It's been just perfect." The press release also reported that her 2011 studio release Better Day had also been certified silver, which means sales in excess of 60,000 copies, but as of Monday BPI's official certification list did not include that title. We'll see if it's included in the next round of official certifications, which should be released on Friday.
Sambora Defends Dolly, Loved Performing With Her Richie Sambora is reflecting on how amazing it was to sit in with Dolly on her cover of "Lay Your Hands On Me" before Glastonbury music festival's largest-ever crowd. He also blasted claims Dolly lip-synched during her set, exclaiming: "She ain't lip-syncing. I was there. I'm telling you, there was no lip-sync going on there….It was fun and it's an honor for me to play with her." Read more from Yahoo here.
Mojo Wants To Know What Album Is Dolly's Best Mojo magazine is asking readers to advise them what is Dolly's career-best album. Read more here or give your suggestions and why via Facebook or Twitter. The best submissions will be printed in the magazine.
54 Below Pays Tribute To Dolly On Sunday New York's 54 Below, referred to as "Broadway's Supper Club," plans a Dolly tribute on Sunday. "54 Does Dolly Parton," starting at 9:30 p.m., requires a $40-$50 cover charge and $25 food and beverage minimum. It includes Broadway and cabaret stars performing Dolly's most beloved songs. Performers include Lisa Asher, Carole J. Bufford, Scott Coulter, Tim DiPasqua, Natalie Douglas, Alex Getlin, Mary Lane Haskell, Jessica Hendy, Lisa Howard, Fay Ann Lee, Lucia Spina, Gabrielle Stravelli and KT Sullivan.
July 21: 'Blue Smoke' Goes Gold In U.K. Dolly this week collected some more metal from her British fans, as BPI on Friday certified Blue Smoke as her fifth U.K. gold album for sales in excess of 100,000 copies; it had been certified silver for sales of 60,000 just two weeks earlier. Mid-week sales figures suggested it likely passed the 100,000 mark around Tuesday of last week. And although the mid-week update on Wednesday had the album slipping to No. 5, the final full-week's charts released on Sunday kept the CD at No. 3, her career-high position, for a second consecutive week, its sixth chart week since release overseas. The album remains at No. 1 U.K. country compilation albums and dips seven to No. 27 digital albums. The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 falls off the top 100 pop albums chart, down from No. 76. Her The Tour Collection gains four to No. 11 country compilations and Ultimate drops nine to No. 16 on the same list, while Emmylou Harris's Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) falls off the top 20 country compilations list, down from No. 13 in its 44th week. On the U.K. pop singles chart, "Jolene" falls out of the top 100, down from No. 96. In Australia, The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 inches down three to No. 29 in its 339th week on the top 40 country albums chart Down Under.
New GAC Dolly Special Coming Great American County (GAC) has announced it will premiere a new episode of its Backstory program on Aug. 2 focusing on the life and career of Dolly. The interview program premieres on the cable channel at 8 p.m. Eastern Aug. 2 with several repeats. The show will be followed at 9 p.m. by a repeat of Kenny Rogers's Backstory episode from 2012.
Allen Talks About Dolly Love Singer Lily Allen told Australia's The Herald Sun about her entire family's adoration for Dolly, whom she met recently (the two shared a magazine cover in the U.K. about their appearances at Glastonbury). Read more here.
July 19: Dollywood Coaster Gets Its Own Ice Cream Flavor Dollywood's 2014 ride addition, the FireChaser Express roller coaster, has been immortalized in ice cream courtesy Mayfield Ice Cream. FireChaser Express Crunchy Caramel Pretzel ice cream is being sold at Food City, Food Lion, IGA, Ingles, Kroger, Piggly Wiggly, Publix and Wal-Marts in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina. In a press release, dairy President Emeritus Scottie Mayfield said: "We're really excited to partner with Dollywood and bring these two great brands together. We believe this will be a perfect fit with our consumers." Click on the image at left, courtesy Business Wire, for a larger view. In related news, the park is one of 20 venues vying for USA Today's 10 Best Readers' Choice contest for U.S. theme parks. As of press time, Dollywood was ranked at No. 2 behind Cedar Point. Vote here! Finally, the park's Great American Summer festival continues through Aug. 3 with 10 a.m.-10 p.m. extended park hours, nighttime roller coaster rides in the dark and a nightly fireworks extravaganza, Dolly's Nights of Many Colors, set to an original Dolly song.
'Blue Smoke' Debuts In Denmark Thanks to her concert there last week, Denmark's pop albums chart sees Dolly's Blue Smoke debut at No. 19. Thanks, Claus! In Ireland, Blue Smoke falls off the top 100 pop albums tally, down from No. 89 in its fifth week, while Real . . . Dolly Parton re-enters the top 100 at No. 84. Stateside, the video for "Home" from Blue Smoke remains steady this week at No. 11 in its fourth week on the GAC top 20 countdown. You may vote once per day for the video here.
July 18: 'Blue Smoke' Dips A Bit On U.S. Charts Dolly's Blue Smoke sees a slip on the July 26 Billboard charts released Thursday. The CD falls off the top 200 current albums list, down from No. 175 in its eighth week, and loses nine places to No. 37 country albums in its ninth chart week. Her 2012 Cracker Barrel DVD/CD set An Evening With . . . Dolly falls off the top 40 music DVD tally, down from No. 38 in its 51st week.
Dolly Doing Another Tennessee Tourism Commercial Dolly has participated in several Tennessee Department of Tourism Development advertising campaigns over the years, and she's about to appear in a new one, it was announced Thursday. The new "Made In Tennessee" campaign features Tennesseans and their music as they advertise the state's tourism offerings. The first commercials have been released and in a press release officials noted that both Dolly and Jack White will participate in future spots. The campaign will focus on the state's "core feeder markets" such as Atlanta, Ga.; Birmingham, Ala.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Greenville, S.C.; Jackson, Miss.; Little Rock, Ark.; Louisville, Ky.; Paducah, Ky.; and St. Louis, Mo.; in addition to "new growth markets" such as Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth and Orlando.
July 17: 'Blue Smoke' Headed To Top 5 Again In U.K. Mid-week charts in the U.K. indicate that Dolly will once again be in the top 5 pop albums chart overseas when the final charts come out on Sunday. As of Wednesday, Blue Smoke had sold 6,100 copies for the first half of the week to slip one digit to No. 4 in its sixth week of release overseas. In related news, a columnist at London's The Guardian obsesses over her love for Dolly here. Finally, thanks to Katyb for sharing some additional European reviews from the Blue Smoke World Tour and its closing night in Switzerland: Gironale de Popolo praised her "uncontainable energy," while The Blick said she "has proven her talent as a full-blooded musician."
San Francisco Dolly Party Coming Next Month Thanks to Billy for alerting me that San Francisco will get a Dolly tribute Aug. 16 at El Rio, where cover band Moonshine Maybelline, singers Margaret Belton, Jessica Rose and Cathering Foreman, and DJ Jenny Hoyston celebrate Dolly. Admission is free. Learn more here.
July 15: 'Blue Smoke' Approaching 100,000 Copies In Britain Dolly's Blue Smoke last week sold 18,568 copies in Great Britain, resulting in its previously-reported advance to No. 3 on the U.K. pop albums chart. To date, the album has sold 96,169 copies in the U.K., compared to about 61,000 copies in the U.S.
July 14: Yet Another Career High Position On U.K. Pop Charts As was predicted by the mid-week charts, Dolly's Blue Smoke this week gives her yet another career high position on the British pop albums chart, rising one place to No. 3 in its fifth week overseas. The album remains at No. 1 U.K. country compilation albums and slips nine spots to No. 20 digital albums, while the U.S. import version falls out of the top 20 U.K. country albums, down from No. 7. The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 falls off the digital downloads chart and loses 48 to No. 76 on the pop 100. Her The Grass Is Blue falls back off the top 20 country albums chart, down from No. 13, while Gold: The Hits Collection falls off the top 20 country compilations chart, down from No. 20. Her The Tour Collection rises two to No. 15 country compilations and Ultimate slides three to No. 7 on the same list, which also finds Emmylou Harris's Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) inching down one to No. 13 in its 44th week on the country compilations chart, while her Original Album Series, Volume 1, released in 2011, falls out of the top 20 on that list, down from No. 10 last week, with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony. On the U.K. top 100 pop singles chart, "Jolene" drops 44 to No. 96 while "9 To 5" and "Islands In The Stream" fall back off the top 100 after one week at No. 75 and No. 89, respectively, while "Jolene" falls off top 40 download singles tally after one week at No. 40. In Ireland, Blue Smoke tumbles 23 to No. 89 in its fifth week on the pop albums chart, while Real . . . Dolly Parton falls off the top 100, down from No. 89. In Australia, Blue Smoke falls back off the top 40 country albums chart, down from No. 32 in its 18th week, while The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 dips three to No. 26 in its 338th week on the top 40 country albums chart Down Under. Back home, the video for "Home" from Blue Smoke loses one to No. 11 in its third week on the GAC top 20 countdown. You may vote once per day for the video here.
July 11: Dolly: No More Touring In Near Future After her Blue Smoke World Tour wraps up next week, Dolly does not plan to tour again for some time, she revealed in a telephone press conference Thursday. Your webmaster was one of about 70 media representatives, including Rolling Stone, People, NBC's Today and more, sitting in on Dolly's call from Stockholm, Sweden, where she will play a concert Friday night. When asked if she plans to tour again soon or release new music, she replied that immediately following the tour she plans to take some time off. She added she is working on new music for telling her life story in a movie and as a theatrical musical but doesn't plan to tour in the immediate future. Instead, she will focus on these projects as well as possibly some television appearances and producing. She further expanded on that thought, saying: "I do not plan to do anymore touring for the next, in the near future . . . I'm sure as years go by we'll be doing other things, but for now I'm going to concentrate more on more of the business end of the things and the creative stuff like I say the musical and the movies and the TV." In other topics, she was asked for an update on the Glastonbury dog Dolly that was found after the festival and she had offered to adopt (she said she was notified about five minutes prior to the call that the owners had been found – the dog had been reported missing but they were apparently foreigners and had a language barrier that made it difficult to tie their report to the dog that had been found; in addition, they discovered the dog was older than originally thought and would have been too old to be shipped across the ocean so she wouldn't have been able to adopt her anyway). She talked about shipping her busses from Australia to Europe for the tour ("I'm a gypsy and this is my caravan."), her gay fan base (she still hopes some time in the future to release a dance album with the "Just A Wee Bit Gay" song and some other uplifting, positive songs), reconciling liberal Hollywood and conservative Nashville (she reminded them that she doesn't get into politics), and the tour's lip-synching controversy ("You know what, every time I go on tour I hear that. I just I want people to just come and watch, see what I do and tell me what you think. And they say that about every artist. And I'm not getting into that. I'm right there. I'm Dolly and I'm singing and I don't think somebody always has something negative to say, so I just roll with the punches."), among other topics. Listen to the entire 20-minute press conference here. Coverage on Thursday included Todayhere, Rolling Stonehere, Country Weeklyhere and Radio.comhere. In related news, thanks to Terje Røed-Hansen in Norway for sending the photo at left from Dolly's Wednesday night concert in Oslo and reviews that she said were very positive here, here and here. And Music News has an interview here.
'Blue Smoke' Inches Up U.S. Chart Dolly's Blue Smoke bumps up a little on the July 19 charts Billboard released Thursday. The CD inches up one to No. 175 current albums and gains two to No. 26 country albums in its eighth chart week, selling around another 2,000 copies for cumulative sales of around 63,000 units since release. Her 2012 Cracker Barrel DVD/CD set An Evening With . . . Dolly falls six to No. 38 in its 51st week on the top 40 music DVD chart. Willie Nelson's To All The Girls, with his duet with Dolly on "From Here To The Moon And Back," falls back off the top 50 country albums tally, down from No. 50 in its 22nd week.
Dolly To Be On Foo Fighters HBO Documentary HBO announced on Thursday that Dolly is among the artists participating in a new series, Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways, premiering in October. The eight-part show, directed by the band's frontman Dave Grohl, focuses on eight individual cities across the country, chronicling each one's history, culture and musical identity featuring "local legends who have become the musical and cultural ambassadors of those cities." One of the cities is Nashville, which is presumably the episode that will feature Dolly. Other guests include Buddy Guy, Joe Walsh, Rick Nielsen, Bad Brains, Chuck D, Gibby Haynes, Allen Toussaint and Gary Clark, Jr.
Dollywood Pilgrimage Book Gets Noticed Another article reviews the new Helen Morales book Pilgrimage to Dollywood. Check it out from The Awlhere.
Mary Sarah's Album With Dolly Drops Mary Sarah's album Bridges, which opens with a duet on Dolly's "Jolene," hit stores on Tuesday, and several media outlets took notice of the teen-agers duets project with country's legends. Read more here and order your copy of the album here.
White Stripes Live Album With 'Jolene' Coming A new live album from The White Stripes featuring their cover of Dolly's "Jolene" will soon be released, it was announced this week. Jack White's Third Man Records Vault Club will issue the limited-edition album "Live Under The Lights Of The Rising Sun" on vinyl, presenting 31 tracks from the band's first-ever overseas tour, a performance in October 2000 in Tokyo, Japan, The Wall Street Jounal blogs reported here. Those not subscribed to White's club may join by July 31 to order the album.
Locals: Goldband Studios In Danger Some local advocates are calling for action to stop the original Goldband Studios in Lake Charles, La., from being demolished. The studio was the location where a teen-aged Dolly recorded her first record: "Puppy Love"/"Girl Left Alone." The studio's archives are being cataloged and preserved by the University of North Carolina, but locals report that the physical studio has fallen into disrepair and may be demolished.
Missouri Imagination Library Shuts Down Due to lack of local funding, Columbia, Mo., has to end its local affiliate of Dolly's Imagination Library early childhood literacy project to send books to children, The Columbia Tribune reports here.
July 8: 'Blue Smoke' Has Sold 78,000 In U.K. Dolly's post-Glastonbury chart impacts were reported here on Sunday, and on Monday concrete sales data were released. Blue Smoke's 7-4 jump on the top 100 British pop albums chart was due to its sales of 28,256 copies for the week, bringing its cumulative U.K. sales since release to 77,601 units (for comparison, based on population, that would equal about 385,000 copies in the U.S., where it has instead only sold about 61,000 units). The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1's re-entry was due to 2,841 in sales, bringing its cumulative total since 2007 to 457,890 copies. The Real Dolly Parton sold 657 copies to rank at No. 159. On the singles side, "Jolene" sold 6,877 copies at No. 52, "9 To 5" sold 5,100 at No. 75, "Islands In The Stream" sold 4,436 copies at No. 89, "Here You Come Again" sold 2,507 copies at No. 153 and "Blue Smoke" sold 2,154 copies at No. 182. The Official U.K. Chart Company noted that her five biggest sellers there over the past 10 years (since digital downloads were added to the charts) are "9 to 5" with 303,511, "Islands In The Stream" with 245,577, "Jolene" with 214,279, "I Will Always Love You" with 55,881 and "Here You Come Again " with 50,033.
Miss Lillian Wins Dollywood A Prize Dollywood over the weekend won its second Theme Park Insider Award: Best Quick Service Restaurant for Miss Lillian's Chicken House, noting not only is the food good but Miss Lillian's entertainment puts it "over the top." The park had previously won Best New Attraction in 2007 for Mystery Mine. Read more here.
July 7: Dolly Earns Silver Album, Single In U.K. Dolly picked up some more metal overseas last week. On Friday, BPI, which certifies gold and platinum albums in the U.K. and has a lower level called silver, bestowed its silver album award on Dolly's Blue Smoke for selling more than 60,000 copies and a silver single award on the 2004 re-issue of her classic song "Jolene" for surpassing 200,000 copies sold. On the charts, Blue Smoke scores her yet another career-high British pop albums position, advancing three spots in its fourth week to No. 4, besting its previous peak at No. 6. The album remains at No. 1 for a fourth week on the U.K. country compilations tally and rises 11 to No. 7 for album downloads, while the U.S. import advances 13 places to No. 7 on the U.K. country albums chart. The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 re-enters the top 100 pop albums chart at No. 41 and re-enters the digital downloads chart at No. 28. Her The Grass Is Blue re-enters the country albums chart at No. 13, while three additional titles show up on the country compilations chart: The Tour Collection gaining six to No. 17, Ultimate debuts at No. 4 and Gold: The Hits Collection re-enters at No. 20. Emmylou Harris's Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) slips five to No. 12 in its 43rd week on the British country compilations chart, while her Original Album Series, Volume 1, released in 2011, gains three to No. 10 in its 41st week back on the same tally with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony. On the top 100 pop singles chart, "Jolene" re-enters at No. 52, "9 To 5" re-enters at No. 75 and "Islands In The Stream" re-enters at No. 89, while "Jolene" also enters the top 40 download singles tally at No. 40.
Other Chart Developments Around The World Next door in Ireland, Blue Smoke gains nine to No. 66 in its fourth week on the pop albums chart, while Real . . . Dolly Parton rises seven to No. 89 on the same tally. Down Under, Blue Smoke re-enters the top 40 country albums chart at No. 32 to garner an 18th week, while The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1 ascends seven to No. 23 in its 337th week on the Australian top 40 country albums chart. In the U.S., Dolly's music video for "Home" from Blue Smoke dips five to No. 10 in its second week on the GAC top 20 countdown. You may vote once per day for the video here.
Dolly May Be Getting New Dog From England One big story after Dolly's Glastonbury appearance was a cute dog found during the clean-up following the festival, which organizers named Dolly in honor of this year's headliner. A nationwide search has been underway for several days seeking its owners under the assumption he was lost, not abandoned. Over the weekend, Dolly mentioned the dog in an interview here. On Sunday, Dolly revealed in a statement that if the owners cannot be found she will adopt the dog: "I had my manager Danny Nozell call the Happy Landings Animal Shelter to make sure the dog is being treated and cared for properly. At this time, nobody has claimed the dog and the dog is in great hands at the shelter. I will take the dog home to America if nobody claims her within a reasonable amount of time." In other news, she called in for BBC Radio 1's Breakfast Show, where Digital Spy noted here that she had never seen a crowd that big and here defending goddaughter Miley Cyrus. Her Blue Smoke World Tour headed to Cologne, Germany, on Saturday and Berlin, Germany, on Sunday. The final four performances are Tuesday in Copenhagen, Denmark, Wednesday in Oslo, Norway, Friday in Stockholm, Sweden, and July 14 at the Moon and Stars Festival in Locarno, Switzerland.
In Memoriam: Hope Powell Longtime entertainment photographer Hope Powell, who captured some of Dolly's most iconic images in the mid-1970s just before her pop cross-over, died on Thursday. She was 90. Her pictures were used to create the cover art for seven Dolly albums: Porter 'N' Dolly, Jolene, The Bargain Store, Love is Like A Butterfly, Dolly's half of the cover for Say Forever You'll Be Mine, All I Can Do and Porter's half of the cover of Porter & Dolly. She also sang with the Christ Church Choir in Nashville, including on their performance with Dolly on "He's Alive." Read her complete obituary here.
July 4: 'Blue Smoke' Still In Country Top 30 Albums In Seventh Week Dolly's Blue Smoke sold another approximately 2,000 units in the U.S. last week, allowing it to spend another week in the top 30 country albums, dipping six spots to No. 28 in its seventh week, the July 12 Billboard charts on Thursday showed. The CD falls 51 places to No. 176 current albums and drops out of the top 200 pop albums tally, down from No. 172. Its cumulative American sales since release should now be about 61,000 copes. Her 2012 Cracker Barrel DVD/CD set An Evening With . . . Dolly loses five to No. 32 in its 50th week on the top 40 music DVD chart. Willie Nelson's To All The Girls, with his duet with Dolly on "From Here To The Moon And Back," gets a 22nd week on the top 50 country albums list at No. 50.
'Try' Being Released As U.K. Single Dolly's success at Glastonbury in the U.K. over the weekend has spurred her label to release another British single from her CD Blue Smoke: her inspirational anthem "Try," Entertainment Focus reported Thursday here. No word on whether the single will be promoted stateside. In related news, Yorkshire Evening Post reviewed her performance here, while The Northwest Evening Mail asked experts how she was able to capture the audience she had at the fest here, and The Huffington Post UK offered what lessons her career can provide to others about brand development here.
'ET' Visits With Dolly Entertainment Tonight spent a day with Dolly and provided some interview highlights here on Thursday.
'Billboard' Recognizes Dolly On 4th Happy Independence Day, America! To celebrate, Billboard on Thursday updated its top 50 artists by state, and once again Dolly rules Tennessee here, and her For God And Country CD cover made the top 40 pictures of musicians wearing the stars and stripes here.
July 3: Glastonbury Impacts On Dolly's Charts Will Be Big Dolly's Glastonbury appearance is having a huge impact on her British music chart standings, the mid-week update from the Official U.K. Chart Company shows. Wednesday's news had "Jolene" re-entering the top 100 pop singles chart at No. 40, "9 To 5" at No. 57 and "Islands In The Stream" at No. 58 (their peak positions were No. 7 in 1976, No. 47 in 1981 and No. 7 in 1983). As of mid-week, The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Volume 1, her sole platinum album in England, re-enters the chart and is currently at No. 34 pop, while her Blue Smoke is up three spots to a new peak of No. 4 with 12,500 copies sold thus far this week. Final numbers will be released on Sunday once the full week's worth of sales have been tallied. In related news, check out footage of the Dolly impersonator who entertained Glastonbury fans whose cars broke down on the way to the festival here. The organizer of Glastonbury afterward confirmed that Dolly drew the largest audience in the 44-year history of the world's largest music festival, according to NME here. The Nottingham Post loved Dolly's concert in their city, her final stop on the U.K. leg of the Blue Smoke World Tour, which now moves to Germany on Saturday and Sunday. Read their review here. And The Yorkshire Evening Post opined on Dolly's feminism here.
Mary Sarah CD Coming Next Week It's less than a week before newcomer Mary Sarah releases her duets album Bridges featuring a duet on "Jolene" with Dolly. Read more from Broadway Worldhere, and order your copy of the disc, coming out on Tuesday, here.
'Challenge' Magazine Interview Posted Dolly is interviewed in the new edition of Challenge magazine. Read it here.
'Country Woman' Hosts Dolly Contest Country Woman Magazine is offering a contest for an autographed copy of Blue Smoke, autographed copy of Dream More: Celebrate The Dreamer In You, an official Dolly tote bag and an official Dolly hat. Enter here.
Ritchie Covers Two Dolly Songs Gay performer Justin Thomas Ritchie recently released his debut album, Feels Like Home, which features two Dolly covers: the Randy Newman-composed title track which she recorded with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris on 1999's Trio II and her Oscar-nominated composition "Travelin' Thru" from 2006's TransAmerica soundtrack. Download the CD here!
July 1: More Glastonbury Coverage In Monday's Papers, Internet Dolly's Sunday Glastonbury festival appearance was the talk of Britain on Monday, with her face gracing almost all national newspapers and almost all London-area newspapers that morning. Billboard on Monday named her set the best act of the festival in a column here which also reported the festival's total attendance was just under 180,000 people, making it the largest music festival in the world (and most of those 180,000 people were present for Dolly's performance, which was the single most attended set of the three-day event). Billboard also reported here that the BBC broadcast of her concert segment drew 2.6 million viewers, or 13.4 percent of all televisions on during that hour in the U.K., giving the festival its highest television ratings of the year. Louder Than War offered a very dramatic review which declared here: "When she sings hearts bleed and when she talks everyone listens. This the voice of dashed dreams and all human emotion is here. Dolly is not just another singer. Dolly is America. America is Dolly." NME reported here that streaming music site Spotify revealed that Dolly had the week's fifth-greatest increase in streaming songs immediately following the festival with a 95 percent jump, with the top four also being Glastonbury performers. The Telegraph said here that the lip-synching accusations shouldn't matter and that people should treat her as the icon she is instead of the "dancing bear" that fans made Whitney Houston into before her death. Gig Wise reports here that bookies have put Dolly in a four-way tie for the third-most-likely acts to perform at next year's festival, giving a 3-1 odds for Depeche Mode, 7-2 odds for Prince and 5-1 odds for Dolly, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles and Oasis. Female First praised her performance here. (And Clash Music praised one of her London O2 Arena concerts from earlier in the weekend here.) Finally, her publicity team released a promotional image of her receiving her RIAA award for 100 million worldwide album sales, viewable above. Click on the image for a larger view. In a press release, Dolly commented: "I've been so busy making records for the past several decades, I didn't realize I had racked up so many sales. What a great honor to know that I have so many fans that have supported me through the years. Thanks to the RIAA for the acknowledgment and the plaque I feel very honored and proud."
Stats: 'Blue Smoke' Has Sold Nearly 50,000 In U.K. Updated sales numbers for Dolly's U.K. release of Blue Smoke were revealed on Monday showing it has sold 49,000 copies since release overseas. Its 21,000 first-week sales were already known, but unknown were the 14,000 it sold for each its second and third weeks. Sales are expected to increase dramatically this week following her Glastonbury set. As of Monday, some sales charts had it as the No. 2 pop album in Britain.
After her Blue Smoke World Tour wraps up next week, Dolly does not plan to tour again for some time, she revealed in a telephone press conference Thursday. Your webmaster was one of about 70 media representatives, including Rolling Stone, People, NBC's Today and more, sitting in on Dolly's call from Stockholm, Sweden, where she will play a concert Friday night. When asked if she plans to tour again soon or release new music, she replied that immediately following the tour she plans to take some time off. She added she is working on new music for telling her life story in a movie and as a theatrical musical but doesn't plan to tour in the immediate future. Instead, she will focus on these projects as well as possibly some television appearances and producing. She further expanded on that thought, saying: "I do not plan to do anymore touring for the next, in the near future . . . I'm sure as years go by we'll be doing other things, but for now I'm going to concentrate more on more of the business end of the things and the creative stuff like I say the musical and the movies and the TV." In other topics, she was asked for an update on the Glastonbury dog Dolly that was found after the festival and she had offered to adopt (she said she was notified about five minutes prior to the call that the owners had been found – the dog had been reported missing but they were apparently foreigners and had a language barrier that made it difficult to tie their report to the dog that had been found; in addition, they discovered the dog was older than originally thought and would have been too old to be shipped across the ocean so she wouldn't have been able to adopt her anyway). She talked about shipping her busses from Australia to Europe for the tour ("I'm a gypsy and this is my caravan."), her gay fan base (she still hopes some time in the future to release a dance album with the "Just A Wee Bit Gay" song and some other uplifting, positive songs), reconciling liberal Hollywood and conservative Nashville (she reminded them that she doesn't get into politics), and the tour's lip-synching controversy ("You know what, every time I go on tour I hear that. I just I want people to just come and watch, see what I do and tell me what you think. And they say that about every artist. And I'm not getting into that. I'm right there. I'm Dolly and I'm singing and I don't think somebody always has something negative to say, so I just roll with the punches."), among other topics. Listen to the entire 20-minute press conference 