www.dollymania.net                News                          August 2016

Aug. 31:
'Pure' Aims At No. 3 U.S. Country, No. 18 U.S. Pop, No. 4 U.K. Pop
Now that it has debuted at the top of the country charts worldwide and pretty high on the pop tallies, Dolly's Pure & Simple looks to stick around. Industry indications are it should sell about 9,000-10,000 copies in its second week, which could put it around No. 16 for album sales on next week's chart and No. 3 country behind the new Florida Georgia Line CD and Chris Stapleton at No. 2. She's currently close to Justin Moore at No. 4 with 4,711 copies noted in the count thus far compared to his 4,339, so it's possible he could overtake her once all numbers are tallied at the end of the week. Adding in streaming views and listens, the album could even remain in the top 20 on the pop chart, as she's currently at No. 18 with just over 7,000 album equivalents at this point in the Hits Daily Double building chart. Overseas, the midweek U.K. update has her falling to No. 4 pop at present with Frank Ocean dropping from No. 1 to No. 2, Barbara Streisand debuting at No. 1 and Britney Spears at No. 2. She'll still be No. 1 country in Great Britain. The full U.K. charts will be released Friday.

A Few More 'Billboard' Charts Revealed
Billboard on Tuesday released the full Sept. 10 U.S. charts. As previously reported, Dolly's Pure & Simple debuts at No. 1 country, No. 11 pop and No. 1 Americana/folk albums. In addition, the charts confirm the previous Dollymania.net report that the album would be No. 6 overall album sales and No. 6 top current albums. Also, the CD debuts at No. 10 digital albums and No. 6 Internet albums. Dolly debuts for the first time ever on the Artist 100 chart, coming in at No. 46. Elsewhere on the charts, the BoxScore concert tally puts her Aug. 3 concert in Fort Wayne, Ind., at No. 28 for the week with a gross of $320,000 and nearly 98 percent of the available 5,476 available tickets sold. Her "Where I Get Where I'm Going" with Brad Paisley gains five to No. 45 Christian digital singles sales and three to No. 47 Christian and gospel digital singles sales in its 21st and 13th weeks, respectively. Don Henley's Cass County, featuring the Dolly duet "When I Stop Dreaming," falls off the Americana/folk albums chart, down from No. 20 in its fourth week, and loses nine to No. 50 country albums in its 41st week. The magazine reported on Dolly's No. 1 status here, while CMT covered it here.

Dolly Chats LGBT Friends, Family, Fans
Promoting the album, another Dolly interview, this one largely about her support of the LGBT community, appeared Tuesday from Pride Source here, and Stereogum offered its opinion of her 10 best songs here.


Aug. 30:
Dolly Celebrates No. 1 Country Album For 'Pure'
Billboard on Monday made official what Dollymania.net had reported a week ago, that Dolly's Pure & Simple debuts as this week's No. 1 country album with 20,200 units sold in its first week. Her total was 8,000 units more than the No. 2 country album by Chris Stapleton. As was also previously reported here, it is her first country No. 1 album in 25 years and just the seventh one of her career. In addition, word came that the album also debuts at No. 1 Americana/folk albums for sales and the approximately 21,000 total units including online streaming credit place it at No. 11 pop for the week, tying 9 To 5 And Odd Jobs as her third-highest charting career album on the pop side. It was also announced Monday that the set is No. 20 pop and No. 1 country in Canada, and it was previously reported here that it is No. 1 country in both the U.K. and Australia. Dolly reacted to the news on Monday in a statement: "Boy, it's a good day for me. I am a happy girl! It feels great to be #1 as it's been a long time and it feels so good to still be in the game after all this time." In other news, Dolly was interviewed on Knoxville's WBIR here and Soo Today profiled some Canadian sisters with the maiden name Parton who hope to meet "Aunt Dolly" in concert this month. Read it here.


Aug. 29:
'Pure & Simple' Hits Top 10 Down Under, Not U.S.
Dolly's new album, Pure & Simple, debuted over the weekend at No. 9 pop, No. 1 country and No. 20 digital albums in Australia, but the list of U.S. top 10 albums released by Billboard on Sunday saw an absence of Dolly's CD, meaning she will not score her third top 10 pop album this week stateside. Due to differences in reporting by the industry insiders at Hits Daily Double and the Nielsen counts used by Billboard there can be some variations and while the former's had her at No. 10 and the Broadway cast recording to Hamilton at No. 13, Billboard had the cast recording at No. 10 instead with about 4,500 more copies sold or streamed than Hits had counted. Dolly should still be No. 1 country in the U.S. when the full charts are released on Tuesday since the difference between the two tallies shouldn't be large enough to cover the nearly 9,000-unit sales lead she has over the No. 2 country title of the week and that list is sales only without counting streaming. And to delve more into the U.K. charts released Friday, in addition to her No. 2 pop and No. 1 country positions the CD is also No. 8 downloads, No. 1 physical sales (snce Ocean's album is download only), No. 2 all sales and No. 2 Scottish. The official Billboard U.S. list with approximate copies sold/streamed versus the Hits positions and sales totals are:

  • 1. Frank Ocean Blonde 276,000 (Hits No. 1, 278,000)
  • 2. Drake Views 77,000 (Hits No. 2, 77,000)
  • 3. Various, Suicide Squad 76,000 (Hits No. 3, 74,000)
  • 4. Tory Lanez I Told You 52,000 (Hits No. 4, 53,000)
  • 5. Lindsey Stirling Brave Enough 49,000 (Hits No. 5, 47,000)
  • 6. Twenty One Pilots Blurryface 33,000 (Hits No. 6, 32,500)
  • 7. Adele 25 28,000 (Hits No. 8, 27,000)
  • 8. Rihanna Anti 27,000 (Hits No. 9, 27,000)
  • 9. DJ Khaled Major Key 27,000 (Hits No. 7, 28,000)
  • 10. Various Hamilton 23,000 (Hits No. 13, 18,500)
  • ? Dolly Pure & Simple ? (Hits No. 10, 21,500)
  • ? Beyonce, Lemonade ? (Hits No. 11, 19,500)
  • ? Various Now 59 ? (Hits No. 12, 19,000)
  • ? Chris Stapleton Traveller ? (Hits No. 14, 18,000)
  • ? Sia This Is Acting ? (Hits No. 15, 18,000)

    Publicity For Album Continues, Dolly Talks TV
    Promoting the album, another interview arrived over the weekend with a piece in Fast Company here, which features the intriguing question of what did she write yesterday since she says she writes something daily, to which she replied: "Instead of writing songs yesterday I was working on a couple series I'm working on putting on television. I'm actually going to produce some stuff, I'll be in a series, might even do my life story as a series. I have some other things I'm going to put on different networks that I'm just producing and creating and developing for TV. So I was writing on a couple ideas for some shows for other people. And that's what I'm doing today as well, as soon as I finish with you. And then at some point I'll get working on some new stuff, onto a new phase. I'll wear this one out and then get onto the new one." Also, the CD earned a three-star review from The Philadelphia Enquirer here.

    '9 To 5' Blu-Ray Pre-Orders Start Soon
    Twilight Time DVDs over the weekend reminded folks that it will begin taking pre-orders at 4 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday for its 3,000-unit limited edition Blu-Ray release of 9 To 5. Check out its Facebook posting of artwork here. The set's release date is Sept. 13.

    NPR Loves Porter & Dolly, Other Broken-Up Duos
    NPR's World Café lumped Porter & Dolly in with Outkast, The White Stripes, The Louvin Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, Sonny and Cher, The Everly Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel and a couple of other pairs as the 10 greatest duos of all time who couldn't keep performing together. Check out the piece here.

    Magazine Looks At 'Silver Dagger'
    American Songwriter this week chose Dolly's cover of "Silver Dagger" as its "Lyric of the Week." Read more here.


    Aug. 27:
    'Pure' Hits No. 2 UK Pop, Should Be No. 10 U.S. Pop
    With about 17,000 copies sold in its first week, Dolly's new album, Pure & Simple, on Friday debuted at No. 2 pop and No. 1 country in Great Britain, where the CD was released with a companion bonus album of her 2014 Glastonbury Festival concert. Given that the U.K. has about one-fifth the population of the U.S., that would equal about 85,000 units in America. The chart high point matches her previous career-high in the U.K. when that same Glastonbury appearance propelled her most recent album, Blue Smoke, to No. 2 in its seventh chart week at the time. Frank Ocean's Blond sold almost twice as many copies as Dolly's album to debut at No. 1. Dolly's set enters a bit lower, No. 33 pop, on the Irish albums chart this week. Stateside, Hits Daily Double's final numbers estimate the album sold about 21,000 copies in the U.S., which should safely place it at No. 1 country and No. 6 for overall album sales. However, the official Billboard pop albums chart now includes additional points for online streaming, and Dolly only picked up 500 points for streaming versus 56,000 extra points for the week's No. 1 album by Frank Ocean, so her combined total should put her at No. 10 pop albums, making it just her third career top 10 album after 1987's Trio and 2014's Blue Smoke, both of which topped out at No. 6 pop. Elsewhere overseas, Dolly's The Tour Collection rises two spots this week on the top 20 country compilations albums chart in the U.K., coming in at No. 17, while Dolly's Ultimate falls back out of the top 20, down from No. 15, Linda Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) re-enters the top 20 at No. 11, and Emmylou Harris' Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) gains one to No. 13.

    Latest 'Pure' Stories
    New interviews are available from Metro Focus here, FOX Business here, Forbes here (where she noted 16 tracks were recorded for the album, of which only 12 have been released), and CNN here, where she compared the current presidential election to the O.J. Simpson trial and said about both parties' candidates: "I think they're both nuts." Cracker Barrel on Friday released a "sizzle reel" of Dolly's upcoming Front Porch Series of interactions with newcomers Kelea Ballerini, Cam, Raelynn Lauren and Alaina, which may be watched here or in the media player below.


    Aug. 26:
    Dolly Keeps Plugging 'Pure & Simple'


    The Dolly promotional tour for her new album continues to run. Interviews popped up from Larry King Now on Ora TV in the media player above or by clicking here, Local 15 TV here, and FOX News' Fox 411 online segment Face2Face here. A positive review of three stars came from Australia's News.com here, while a lackluster review of C+ came from Georgia State Signal here. Billboard picked up on Thursday on the news that Dollymania.net concluded and reported three days earlier: that Pure & Simple is on track to become Dolly's first country No. 1 album in 25 years. Read more here.

    New Trio Track Comes Out
    Another previously unreleased track from Sept. 9's The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe was teased on Thursday with the release of "Waltz Across Texas Tonight" on AOL's The Boot. Listen to the track here or download it here.

    Reba's Dolly Cover Previewed
    Rolling Stone on Thursday premiered Reba's cover of the Dolly holiday classic "Hard Candy Christmas" from her upcoming Cracker Barrel Christmas album. Take a listen to the very laid-back interpretation of the Broadway standard here.


    Aug. 25:
    Dolly Rocks NBC On 'Tonight,' 'Today'


    Dolly's promotions for Pure & Simple continued this week. Check out an online exclusive clip of performing "Coat Of Many Colors" after Tuesday night's The Tonight Show appearance here or in the media player above. Headline Planet reports here that Dolly's appearance gave the show its highest ratings in eight months. And check out her Today appearances from Wednesday morning here. Elsewhere, Sounds Like Nashville got Dolly's exclusive story-behind-the-song video about the song "Forever Love" and posted it here. Dolly's management officially announced the album's Cracker Barrel version in a press release – revealing it will be released on Friday, even though some stores have been stocking and selling it since last Friday. They also revealed that day the restaurant's YouTube channel will feature Dolly hosting a new "Front Porch Series" of web shorts where emerging artists play games such as "You're Sooooo Country," "Real Song or Fake Song" and "Dolly or Not Dolly." In the release, Dolly stated: "My relationship with Cracker Barrel goes back a long way. We are giving their guests something very special with this deluxe album filled with pictures and interviews from my past and present. I am very excited to be working with them on this project; we make a great team." ABC reviewed the album here with three stars, and Mic reviewed it here as "one of Parton's least schmaltzy, most personal releases in memory." The updated Hits Daily Double tallies keep the album at No. 7 overall and No. 1 country for sales with mid-week sales totals of 9,178. That's also the total for sales plus streaming to date, but it's No. 14 on that list.

    Real Jolene Found Up North?
    The CBC thinks they may have found the real "Jolene." According to a story here, they interview Juline Whelan, who says he was a red-headed, green-eyed, milky-skinned little girl who asked Dolly for an autograph a few months before she wrote and recorded the famous song.

    Dolly Helps Childhood Diabetes
    If you want to see a huge LED billboard of Dolly in Times Square, you're in luck. Dolly is one of seven celebrities who will each be featured for one week on the billboard to raise awareness for the Children's Diabetes Foundation, The Hollywood Reporter revealed here this week. Others participating are Jay Leno, Quincy Jones, Lionel Richie, Julie Chen, Babyface Edmonds and Josh Groban.

    Lumberjack Adventure Gets Noticed
    Outside Online profiled Dolly's Lumberjack Adventure here this week.


    Aug. 24:
    'Pure & Simple' Appears To Be No. 1 Country Album
    Industry insiders Hits Daily Double expects Dolly next week to have her first country No. 1 album in 25 years with Pure & Simple. The site's projections have her about 5,000 units ahead of this week's No. 1 Justin Moore with between 17,000 and 19,000 direct sales expected and about 18,000 to 20,000 including streaming views and digital tracks. If those numbers hold, the album would be No. 7 pop on sales or No. 13 on sales and streams combined. As of Monday, early reports had the album with 8,410 purchases and 8,610 purchases and streams, putting it at No. 7 and No. 13, respectively on the first draft of the charts, which will tighten up as more sales reports are received. Elsewhere on this week's charts, Best of Dolly Parton: Collections debuts at No. 100 Canadian pop albums on the Sept. 3 tallies, according to Billboard magazine, while "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Brad Paisley re-enters both the Christian digital singles sales chart and Christian and gospel digital singles sales chart at No. 50. Don Henley's Cass County, featuring the Dolly duet "When I Stop Dreaming," gains three to No. 20 in its fourth week on the Americana/folk albums chart and moves up eight places to No. 41 country albums in its 40th week.

    Dolly Promotes Album On TV
    Promoting the new album, Dolly was on FOX News' Fox & Friends on Tuesday, announcing that Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love will premiere on NBC Nov. 30. That appearance was summarized by ABC Radio News here. Interviews were released from The Evening Telegraph here, and Yahoo here. In addition, The Grand Ole Opry released a teaser video about the track "Can't Be That Wrong" here.

    U.K. Preview Of Trio Track
    British readers may hear another outtake from the Trio sessions with a preview of The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe with the track "Waltz Across Texas Tonight." Take a listen from Uncut here.


    Aug. 23:
    Experts: 'Pure' Looks To Sell Up To 25K
    It appears Dolly has another hit on her hands. Industry observers Hits Daily Double over the weekend projected that based on first-day sales they anticipate Pure & Simple to sell between 20,000 and 25,000 copies in its first week in the U.S. Where it lands on the charts will depend how other albums sell this week, but last week sales of this magnitude would have put the album around No. 12 or 13 for combined sales and streams (similar to how the Billboard top 200 is currently created) or No. 5 for sales only. For comparison, her most recent album, Blue Smoke, debuted at No. 6 pop and No. 6 album sales, her highest chart position ever, with 37,000 copies sold in its first week. Overseas, early chart numbers have her at No. 2 sales in the U.K. with more than 10,000 units moved thus far in the week. For comparison, Blue Smoke debuted at No. 6 pop U.K. with 21,000 copies sold and rose to No. 2 following her Glastonbury appearance. The British charts should be released Friday and the U.S. charts next week.

    Dolly TV Appearances Coming This Week
    Now that Dolly's new album is out, it's time for her to start making public appearances to promote it. She'll be on Fox News' Fox & Friends on Tuesday morning and NBC's The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon Tuesday night, followed by performances on both the morning and mid-morning editions of Today on NBC Wednesday. Print interviews include The Evening Standard here, where she notes she is in preliminary talks to create her own DollyFest in London's Hyde Park that would feature several performers with her as the final act of the multi-day festival if she can work it into her schedule, the BBC here, Chris D here, The Star here and Hello magazine's Canadian edition here.

    Dolly To Appear On NBC Annual Holiday Show
    Dolly will have a performance on this year's Christmas In Rockefeller Center holiday special on NBC, producers revealed this week by making ticket available via their website for free (but now sold out) taping of her appearance in New York City on Tuesday night.

    New Dolly Track Released For Download
    The latest fundraising CD to benefit the Great Smoky Mountains Association, On Top Of Old Smoky: New Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music became available for digital sales in recent days, including Dolly's contribution to the set, a new recording of "Little Rosewood Casket." Download it here!

    'Jolene' Makes Best Songs List
    Pitchfork this week released its list of the "200 best songs of the 1970s," choosing Dolly's "Jolene" at No. 30. Read more here.


    Aug. 20:
    Cracker Barrel 'Simple,' October Kids' CD, 2017 Holiday CD Announced
    Dolly made her way to a Facebook live fan Q&A session on Friday morning to promote that day's release of her new album, Pure & Simple, making several unexpected announcements during the course of the appearance, which you may watch in full here. First, she announced that on Friday an additional store-exclusive version of the album had been released, this one for Cracker Barrel featuring two bonus tracks ("Jolene" and "9 To 5" from her live set at the Glastonbury Festival), a photo magnet, an exclusive 48-page CD booklet on Dolly's career, and a coupon book (for $10 off Dollywood admission, $3 off Dixie Stampede admission, $3 off Lumberjack Adventure admission, and $3 off Pirates Voyage admission). The Cracker Barrel version is in addition to the 22-song deluxe edition sold as a Wal-Mart exclusive with two studio bonus tracks ("Mama" and "Lovin' You") plus a 10-song greatest hits companion CD and in addition to the standard 10-song version sold by all other U.S. retailers. Her second announcement was she revealed the new CD won't be her only one this year, as an October release date has been set for her long-awaited children's album of songs she wrote over the years for various Imagination Playhouse musicals at Dollywood. Proceeds will benefit her Imagination Library charity. Third, she revealed that she will release a Christmas album in 2017 that will include songs she wrote and performed that will appear on this holiday season's NBC movie Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love, including a song called "Circle Of Love" which she said she understands Jennifer Nettles, who plays her mother in the film, has recorded for her own holiday album for release later this year.

    'Pure & Simple' Dominates Media On Release Day
    Friday's release of Pure & Simple brought several additional reviews and interviews on its Friday release date. The album appeared to be doing quite well, debuting at No. 9 on Friday's iTunes chart while hitting No. 4 overall and No. 1 country for Amazon.com's physical CD sales Friday, No. 6 overall and No. 1 country for the store's digital download albums. Overseas, Amazon UK ranked the album No. 1 overall and No. 1 country on Friday for physical CD sales and No. 5 overall and No. 1 country for downloads, while iTunes U.K had it at No. 3 overall. Reviews were posted from Vernon Morning Star here, three-out-of-five stars from both The Evening Standard here and Rolling Stone here and four-out-of-five stars from Music News here. Interviews were available from UPI here, the BBC here (an excerpt focusing on music plagiarism from a longer interview that the network says will be posted on Saturday), Rolling Stone here, People here, Perez Hilton here (with exclusive video on the song "I'm 16" and her show prep), Elle here, Cosmopolitan here, In Style here, AOL here, The San Diego Union Tribune here (a very detailed and lengthy profile and interview) and The Australian here (which reveals, as many fans have suspected, that he has yet to receive a large enough offer to purchase the photos of her wedding vow renewal and interview with husband Carl Dean to make the sale of them to a magazine worthwhile to raise money for children's charities, which is why they have yet to be released).

    U.K. Chart Updates
    Dolly's The Tour Collection dips three places this week on the top 20 country compilations albums chart in the U.K., Friday's numbers showed, with the collection at No. 19, while Dolly's Ultimate re-enters the top 20 at No. 15. Elsewhere on the same tally, Linda Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) falls out of the top 20, down from No. 20, and Emmylou Harris' Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) rises five to No. 14. To celebrate the new album's release, Britain's Official Chart Company released Dolly's 10-best-selling digital downloads since the charts began tracking them in 2005 in a piece here (which gives honorable mention to Whitney Houston's cover of "I Will Always Love You," which spent 10 weeks at No. 1 in the U.K. and has sold 1.63 million downloads since 1995).

  • 1. 9 To 5, No. 47 U.K. peak, 1981 release, 340,800 downloads and 8.46 million online streams, gold certification
  • 2. Islands In The Stream, No. 7 U.K. peak, 1983 release, 287,200 downloads and 4.83 million streams, silver certification as digital single (and separate silver certification as vinyl 45)
  • 3. Jolene, No. 7 U.K. peak, 1976, 255,300 downloads and 6.68 million streams, silver certification
  • 4. I Will Always Love You, uncharted, 1974, fewer than 200,000 downloads
  • 5. Here You Come Again, No. 75, 1984
  • 6. Coat Of Many Colours, uncharted, 1971
  • 7. Love Is Like A Butterfly, uncharted, 1974
  • 8. Together You And I, No. 67, 2011
  • 9. Blue Smoke, uncharted, 2014
  • 10. Better Get To Livin', uncharted, 2007

    ATL Collective Plans 'Jolene' Night
    ATL Collective, a group that "creates musical events that seek to replicate the intimate experience of listening to an album for the first time, going track by track, reading through the liner notes and turning over the record, truly enjoying the music for what it is, without distractions," has selected Dolly to honor this fall. The Atlanta-area group curates a different concert every month selecting "the finest musicians around" and having them perform covers of "the greatest albums ever recorded," starting with the first song on the original album and continuing to its end. They have chosen Dolly's 1974 classic Jolene for their September gathering, scheduled for two shows at 7:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. Sept. 24 at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Ga. Tickets are on sale now for $20 and $25.


    Aug. 19:
    Dolly's New 'Pure & Simple' CD Hits Stores Worldwide
    The release of Dolly's new CD, Pure & Simple, has arrived. As of midnight Friday, the digital version became available for download from outlets such as iTunes or Amazon, pre-ordered copies should arrive from most retailers in the mail on Friday and shoppers who wish to pick up in-store copies may now do so as well. To refresh your memory, a 10-song standard version is available from most retailers in the U.S., while a 22-song version that contains two new bonus tracks and a 10-song greatest hits companion CD is a Wal-Mart exclusive in the U.S. and the standard release version in all countries outside of the U.S. except Great Britain (where the greatest hits companion CD is replaced with a new live CD of her 2014 Glastonbury Festival concert – order that version as an import from Amazon here).

    Dolly will celebrate the release of the album with a Facebook Live appearance on her official Facebook page here at 12:40 p.m. Eastern (11:40 a.m. Central) Friday to answer fan questions. Questions may be submitted in advance here.

    On Friday, SiriusXM observes the release by airing a Dolly-hosted special to premiere the album. It will be broadcast on Willie's Roadhouse, Channel 59, (all times Eastern) at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday, and 3 p.m. and 11 p.m. Sunday. Then Prime Country, Channel 58, has declared the following Friday, Aug. 26, as "Dolly Day" and will repeat the show at 9 a.m., 3 p.m. and 10 p.m. that day. In a press release, Dolly exclaimed: "I can't wait for fans to hear the SiriusXM special. It'll give everyone a little insight into the inspiration, writing and making of Pure & Simple and The Complete Trio Collection." The press release also marked the first public announcement by Dolly's management or publicist of the Wal-Mart exclusive special version of the album for the U.S. with the bonus tracks and greatest hits companion CD which was first discovered and reported by Dollymania.net more than a month ago.

    Dolly's official Twitter account on Thursday posted 30-second previews of each of the 10 songs on the album's standard U.S. version:

  • Pure and Simple
  • Say Forever You'll Be Mine
  • Never Not Love You
  • Kiss It (An Make It All Better)
  • Can't Be That Wrong
  • Outside Your Door
  • Tomorrow Is Forever
  • I'm Sixteen
  • Head Over High Heels
  • Forever Love

    Reviews have been mixed. The project received two-out-of-five stars from The Independent here and The Times of London here; three-out-of-five stars from The Guardian here and The Irish Times here, four-out-of-five stars from Metro Weekly here and The Daily Mail here and an "A-" from Entertainment Weekly here. In addition, an Associated Press review that found the album's quality lacking but Dolly still "impossible to dislike" on the disc is available from The Beaumont Enterprise here.

    Interviews popped up from Mic here, Paste here, Metro Weekly here, Yahoo here, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation here and CNN Money here, which notes the CD is her 90th album. (Her publicist keeps calling it in press releases – and therefore most press reports refer to the CD as – her 43rd album. That number is only accurate for her solo, studio, non-soundtrack, non-holiday, non-Dollywood albums. Adding in official studio duet, trio, and quartet albums, Christmas albums, live albums, Dollywood exclusive releases, film soundtracks where she was the principal artist, official best of/greatest hits collections, and a couple of official repackages of unreleased or remixed materials, I count about 80 official albums, so CNN must be including 10 of her various compilations out of the dozens and dozens released over the years to come up with 90.)

    Finally, NBC on Thursday confirmed that her appearance Tuesday night on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon will feature both an interview and musical performance. The previous schedule announced earlier in the week did not note that she would be singing as well as being interviewed.


    Aug. 18:
    'Pure & Simple' Promotions Continue
    The publicity machine in advance of Friday's release of the new Dolly CD Pure & Simple continued Wednesday. Interviews came out from Entertainment Weekly here (where she expresses hope to release her dance album as well as record an album of old world folk ballads and a "great blues album – a white trash blues album"), CMT here about songwriting, The Times of London here and Vanity Fair here. The album received reviews from The Cleveland Plain Dealer here (a C- giving the vocals top marks but the songwriting quality low marks due to "the saccharine sweetness of the subject matter"), New York Newsday here (a B+) and Now Toronto here (three out of five stars). And the Country Music Association released a teaser video on Facebook here of Dolly talking about the track "Kiss It (And Make It Better)."


    Aug. 17:
    Hear Another 'Pure' Track, Check Out Interviews


    The media blitz to promote Friday's release of Pure & Simple has begun. CBC radio program Q on Tuesday aired an interview taped with Dolly a few weeks ago. Check it out here or in the media player above. USA Today published an interview here with a streaming preview of the album's track "Can't Be That Wrong," which it turns out is her 1984 top 10 hit "God Won't Get You" with a couple of lines of lyric changed. She also had an interview with Vice's Broadly here. In related news, reviews of the album popped up on The Quietus here and Sounds Like Nashville here, while reviews of her recent concerts came from Red Dirt Report here and Windy City Times here. I'm also told she has a profile in the music section of the Aug. 19-26 issue of Entertainment Weekly on newsstands now.

    U.S. Chart Updates
    Two more Pure & Simple Tour concerts showed up on this week's Billboard Box Score tally. Dolly's Aug. 10 engagement in Evansville, Ind., was the week's 10th highest-grossing show with 78 percent of the 8,392 available seats sold for gross ticket sales of $627,145. Then her Aug. 12 night in Tulsa, Okla., saw 93 percent of the 6,579 available seats sold for a ticket gross of $543,662 and the No. 13 spot for the week. Elsewhere on the magazine's Aug. 27 charts, Don Henley's Cass County, featuring the Dolly duet "When I Stop Dreaming," gains two to No. 23 in its third week on the Americana/folk albums chart and re-enters the 50-position country albums chart at No. 49 for a 39th week.

    Opry Video Set Sequel Features Dolly
    Time Life recently released a second set of old Grand Ole Opry performances on DVD. Opry Video Classics II features three Dolly songs across its eight discs: "Hall of Fame 2" has "The Last Thing On My Mind" with Porter Wagoner, "Legends 2" has "The Right Combination" with Porter, and "Queens Of Country 2" has her solo performance of "Dumb Blonde." Order the set from Amazon here.

    Dolly Hoot Hits San Fran
    If you're in the San Francisco area this weekend, be sure to check out the Dolly HOOT at El Rio on Mission Street. The free 3 p.m. event Saturday features lip-synching contests, look-a-likes, a Dolly vinyl set, Dolly-themed prizes and live covers from The Muddy Roses.

    Trans Artist Celebrates Dolly Friendship
    The U.K.'s Gay Times interviewed trans artist Our Lady J and the topic of conversation turned to how she did a show of Dolly covers, which led to meeting Dolly, which led to them becoming friends, which led Dolly to help her with her gender reassignment surgery. Read the full interview here.

    Dolly Audio Sampled For Video
    Trans artist Rae Spoons sampled audio of Dolly's response earlier this year to an interview with CNN about the anti-LGBT North Carolina law in the new video for the pro-LGBT anthem "I Hear Them Calling." Check out an interview and the video from Samaritan Mag here.

    Dollywood Announces $2 Million Water Slide
    Dollywood on Tuesday revealed the 2017 addition for its Splash Country water park: TailSpin Racer. The $2 million ride allows six guests to race on mats through intertwined high-speed AquaTubes before emerging onto a slide. The slide length is longer than a football field and its height will be five stories tall. Check out an artist's rendering below.


    Aug. 16:
    '9 To 5' Hitting Limited-Edition Blu-Ray Disc
    Twilight Time, the same boutique movie house that put out Steel Magnolias on Blu-Ray in 2012, on Monday announced its DVD release of another Dolly classic, 9 To 5, on Sept. 13. Unfortunately, basically all of the titles released by the label are limited to 3,000 copies due to its agreements with the major studios for re-issues, so many popular titles sell out quickly. Advanced orders will begin through the label's website starting Aug. 31. Bonus features will be the same as on the 25th anniversary "Sexist, Egotistical, Lying, Hypocritical Bigot Edition" from 2006: Isolated Score Track; Audio Commentary with Actresses Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton, and Producer Bruce Gilbert; Audio Commentary with Screenwriter Patricia Resnick and Film Historians Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman; Nine @ 25: Revisiting a Comedy Classic; Remembering Colin Higgins; Singing Nine to Five Karaoke; Dolly Parton Interview; Lily Tomlin Interview; Deleted Scenes; Animation Reel; Gag Reel; and Original Theatrical Trailer.

    Dolly Visits 'Tonight Show' Next Week
    NBC on Monday revealed that Dolly will join Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show next Tuesday, Aug. 23, to promote her new album Pure & Simple. The network says she will be interviewed and a performance is possible. In related news, an interview was released Monday by Entertainment Tonight Canada here.

    Spotify Adds Legendary Country Artist Playlist
    Music streaming service Spotify on Monday announced the launch of the New Traditions/Country Heroes playlist focusing on iconic and legendary artists who are continuing to release new music such as Dolly, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, George Strait and more. The initial playlist will debut with five tracks from Dolly's Pure & Simple. In a press release, Dolly noted: "I'm so excited to be a part of the launch of the New Traditions/Country Heroes playlist on Spotify. It's really important to keep up with the times and I'm thrilled to bring the fans these Pure & Simple songs. They come from the heart and I sure hope everyone enjoys them."


    Aug. 15:
    Dolly Sets 'Today' Appearance, Talks Marriage, Adele
    Dolly wrapped up the second leg of her Pure & Simple Tour Friday night in Tulsa, Okla., and Saturday in North Little Rock, Ark., and she's now on a month-long break until its third leg kicks off Sept. 9 in Canada. While off the road, it has been announced she'll stop by NBC's Today studios next week for performances during both the 7 a.m.-9 a.m. and 10 a.m.-11 a.m. segments and an interview during the show's 9 a.m.-10 a.m. hour on Wednesday, Aug. 24, to promote this Friday's release of her CD Pure & Simple. In related news, The Toronto Sun reviewed the CD with 2-and-a-half out of five stars here, The Scotsman gave it two stars (and sister Stella's Mountain Songbird: A Sister's Tribute three stars) here and The Arts Desk loved everything except the song "Mama" in its review here (the latter two refer to the British version of the album with her Glastonbury live bonus CD available as an import in the U.S. here). Her Tulsa show was reviewed by Tulsa World here. Her Little Rock show was reviewed by Arkansas Online here. She talked with CMT about her marriage here and with Digital Spy about her marriage and goddaughter Miley Cyrus' upcoming nuptuials here and her new album here. The final interview included her admission that she wants to record a duet and/or write a song with Adele, a note that went viral: ""I love her, love her, love her! Did you notice I used her name in one of the songs on the album? On 'Head Over High Heels', when I say 'I put on my tight dress, hair piled on my head, painting my lips red and my eyes like Adele!' I love her! I would love to do something with her. I just love her. I love how she looks, I love how she sings, I love how she is. I would love to do something with her. Maybe write a song? Maybe do a duet. So pass that word along!" The feeling is mutual, as Adele gushed during her 2011 concert DVD Adele: Live at the Royal Albert Hall: "I fucking love Dolly Parton!" adding that she'd like to cover a Dolly song someday.

    U.K. Chart Updates
    Dolly's The Tour Collection holds steady this week on the top 20 country compilations albums chart in the U.K., it was revealed Friday, coming in at No. 16, while Linda Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) loses three to No. 20 and Emmylou Harris' Original Album Series: Volume 1 (with two Dolly covers, one track with Dolly harmony and one track with Trio harmony by Dolly and Ronstadt) re-enters the top 20 at No. 19.

    Fan Gets Prof
    Major fan Jason Denton, half of the first couple to marry at Dollywood's DreamMore Resort, is profiled in Advantage News here for his fandom and his following her on her current tour.

    New York Show Seeks Miles From Fans
    Hello Dolly Fans!
    Do you have extra frequent flyer miles? 
    Dollypalooza 2016 in NYC is looking for awesome fans to donate frequent flyer miles (from any major US airline) to help raise funds for Dolly's charity, Imagination Library!  Your miles will be used in the silent auction on September 3rd to send two lucky winners to Dollywood!
    We are a VERY small team of mostly volunteers, and we rely on generous fans like you to donate the prizes for the auction. 
    In return for your donation, Dollypalooza will give you a shout out on the website and during the event. Plus, we'll make sure to let Dolly's people know it was YOU that helped us get a fabulous top level prize, that will mean more kids get access to great books through her charity.
    If you are interested in supporting the cause, please email our outreach coordinator for more details: dgbarlin@gmail.com.
    Thanks so much!
    -Dara


    Aug. 12:
    Hear Another 'New' Trio Track From Boxed Set
    Rhino Records on Thursday released a new single from the previously unreleased Trio recordings in advance of next month's release of The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe: "Calling My Children Home", an a capella track made released through Rolling Stone here.

    New Tour Pictures, Review Posted
    The Dollymania.net gallery of photos from the second half of Dolly's Columbus concert last week have been added to that section of the website here. In other concert news, National Country Review reviewed her Grand Rapids, Mich., show here.

    Tour Makes Concert Chart
    Two more Pure & Simple concerts made Billboard's list of concert grosses this week. Her Aug. 6 Grand Rapids engagement came in at No. 25 with $489,002 generated by the sale of 94 percent sold of the 5,552 tickets available, and her July 19 show in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, made No. 28 with $364,308 from 82 percent of the 5,560 tickets sold. Elsewhere on the Aug. 20 charts, Don Henley's Cass County, featuring the Dolly duet "When I Stop Dreaming," re-enters the top 25 Americana/folk albums chart at No. 25 for a second week on the tally.


    Aug. 11:
    Tour Nets Several New Interviews


    As Dolly's Pure & Simple Tour's second leg winds down, several new interviews have surfaced this week. Her official website posted a clip of her talking about the album's title track here or in the media player above. Blog Autostraddle captured the essence of lifelong fandom – and how her music becomes the soundtrack of one's life – in a piece here about participating in a telephone "virtual press conference" with her over the weekend. Vogue shared a nice telephone interview from the set of her upcoming NBC Christmas movie here, and Canada's National Post published a sit-down interview here which noted that she pledges this is NOT her final tour but will be her last large-scale tour for a few years due to her movie and television projects coming up. Kentucky Country Music reviewed Tuesday's Danville, Ky., stop here, and Country Stars Central reviewed Sunday's Chicago-area performance here.

    'Golden Streets Of Glory' Gets First Digital Download Release
    Not only will RCA Nashville on Aug. 19 issue Dolly's new album, Pure & Simple, but the label announced on Wednesday that the same day will also bring another first-time digital download release of a Dolly classic under its original name: her 1971 gospel album Golden Streets of Glory, which in 1972 earned Dolly her sole gospel Grammy nomination, for Best Sacred Recording for the album's title track. (The album's 10 songs had previously been included -- along with seven other spiritual recordings of hers -- on the 2010 compilation Letter To Heaven: Songs Of Faith & Inspiration.) Also on the same day, the label will digitally re-issue her 1973 concept album My Tennessee Mountain Home for download as well, but it has previously been available digitally. In other Dolly release news, a "Pop Art Cover" DVD edition of Dolly's 1982 film The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas was announced for sale in regular stores starting Oct. 11 – the re-issue with alternate cover art has been available a few weeks as a Wal-Mart exclusive.


    Aug. 9:
    Another Texas Stop Added To Tour
    A Dec. 2 engagement at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas, has been added to the itinerary for Dolly's Pure & Simple Tour, it was announced Monday. The date marks the 14th show in the tour's fourth and final leg, the 63rd concert announced thus far for the tour. Ticketmaster shows a Dolly Presale, Ticketmaster Presale, Fan Presale and VIP packages going on sale at 10 a.m. Central time Thursday with public sales at 10 a.m. Friday. In other news, Wednesday's Evansville show received a preview in The Courier Press here and her Chicago-area performance was reviewed by The Chicago Tribune here.

    Dolly Wishes Publicist Happy Birthday
    Dolly on Sunday celebrated publicist Kirt Webster's birthday from the stage in Chicago and via video message on Facebook. Check out the Facebook post here or in the media player below.


    Aug. 8:
    Pure & Simple Tour Nears Second Leg Conclusion
    The second leg of Dolly's Pure & Simple Tour wound through Windsor, Ont., Thursday night; Grand Rapids, Mich., on Saturday and the Ravinia Festival outside of Chicago on Sunday. The leg wraps up this week with shows Tuesday in Danville, Ky., Wednesday in Evansville, Ind., Friday in Tulsa, Okla., and Saturday in North Little Rock, Ark., before taking a break until the third leg begins in another month. The Dayton Daily News offered a scolding to concertgoers in Columbus who recorded everything on their cell phones here, The Windsor Star presented a photo gallery from her show there here and interviews or previews came from Billboard here, Kentucky.com here and The Chicago Sun Times here. Finally, the first gallery of official Dollymania.net shots from the Columbus stop on her tour has been posted here. This page is from the first half of the show. Look for two or three more galleries from the second half over the next few days!

    U.K. Chart Updates
    Dolly's The Tour Collection gains two on the top 20 country compilations albums chart in the U.K., it was revealed Friday, coming in at No. 16, while Linda Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) rises three to No. 17.


    Aug. 4:
    Trio Alt Take Of 'Wildflowers' Gets Lyric Video


    An alternate take on the Dolly composition "Wildflowers" from the upcoming bonus tracks of The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe, coming out Sept. 9, was released Wednesday as the project's second single, complete with a lyric video here and in the media player above. The single is available for download here. This version features a more modern accompaniment, and instead of Dolly singing lead on all three verses as in the album version, this recording has Emmylou Harris taking lead the second verse and Linda Ronstadt on the third.

    Pure & Simple Tour Updates
    Dolly's Pure & Simple Tour got the audience – including former presidential candidate Ohio Gov. John Kasich – to its feet at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus Tuesday night, complete with her optional second encore, "Hello God"/"He's Alive." The Columbus Dispatch offered a review here. The tour rolled on to Ft. Wayne, Ind., on Wednesday and will hit Windsor, Ont., on Thursday, Grand Rapids on Saturday and Highland Park, Ill., on Sunday. The Huffington Post looked at her recent Utah show here and shared a telephone interview here, while Michigan Live interviewed her here. Tickets for her December Dallas-area show go on presale via AXS.com on Thursday with regular public sales starting Friday morning. Photo from Columbus show below is © Copyright 2016 T. Duane Gordon/www.dollymania.net. May not be reproduced without prior writer consent. All rights reserved. Click on the picture for a larger view. More images to come!


    Aug. 2:
    Billboard Names Dolly No. 3 Woman Of Country
    Billboard magazine recently released its updated lists of the "greatest of all time top country artists, songs and albums" based on chart performance. While Dolly did not have an album on the top 50 album tally, she had two songs – "Here You Come Again" at No. 23 and "Islands In The Stream" at No. 32 – on the top 50 singles list. On the all-artist list, she ranked No. 18, which put her in third place for women artists behind No. 7 Reba McEntire and No. 17 Loretta Lynn. (The methodology assigned points for each chart based on success, so each week at No. 1 counted more than each week at No. 2, etc.) For comparison, while Dolly has the most No. 1 singles at 25 – compared to Reba's 24 and Loretta's 16 – Reba has the most top 10 singles – 59 compared to Dolly's 55 and Loretta's 51, but Dolly's six No. 1 albums put her behind Loretta's 11 and Reba's 12. Several individual artists included Dolly among their top 5: Kelsea Ballerini at No. 1 for most stylish country artist here, Jason Aldean in his greatest country duets for her work with Kenny Rogers here, and both Keith Urban and Cam in their five favorite female artists here and here. The full top 10 female list was as follows:

  • Reba 7
  • Loretta 17
  • Dolly 18
  • Tammy Wynette 25
  • Crystal Gayle 32
  • Taylor Swift 37
  • Carrie Underwood 38
  • Tanya Tucker 41
  • Anne Murray 42
  • Shania Twain 44

    Pure & Simple Tour Reviews, Previews Continue
    Dolly's Pure & Simple Tour continues to make its mark across America, garnering positive reviews from The St. Louis Post Dispatch here, Pitch here and The Kansas City Star here for her weekend shows. Things roll on to Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday night for a sold out show at the Ohio State Fair. Check out a preview from The Columbus Dispatch here.