Nov. 30: Dolly 'Heartbroken' Over East Tenn. Fires
Dollywood and Dolly's other Pigeon Forge attractions narrowly averted tragedy Monday night when hundreds of homes and businesses in the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area were destroyed by wind-fueled wildfires in chronic drought conditions. Ironically, less than 36 hours before the natural disaster, the USDA Forest Service had issued a new public service announcement featuring Dolly and Smoky the Bear urging caution due to the risk of fire in the Great Smoky Mountains. Watch it here or in the media player above. After the fires died down some on Tuesday and it appeared the threat to her properties had passed, she released the following statement: "I have been watching the terrible fires in the Great Smoky Mountains and I am heartbroken. I am praying for all the families affected by the fire and the firefighters who are working so hard to keep everyone safe. It is a blessing that my Dollywood theme park, the DreamMore Resort and so many businesses in Pigeon Forge have been spared." Dollywood, which remained closed on Tuesday, announced late in the day that while it had suffered no damage to the park, it would remain closed until 2 p.m. Friday to focus on supporting the community. Likewise, no damage was reported to DreamMore Resort, which had evacuated about 50 rooms Monday night but re-opened on Tuesday, or Lumberjack Adventure or Dixie Stampede. However, 19 Dollywood cabins were evacuated on Monday night and by Tuesday more than a dozen of the park's rental cabins had suffered fire damage or been destroyed. The park encourages donations to the American Red Cross, 800-Red-Cross or by texting REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Throughout the area, hundreds of homes, businesses and rental units were destroyed and as of press time three deaths had been confirmed. Coverage of the fire was all over national media. One example that focused on Dolly was Billboardhere.
'Circle Of Love' Premiere Nears
The wait is nearly over, as the highly-anticipated Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love premieres Wednesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern on NBC. Reviews of the film have been mixed and include The Washington Posthere, USA Todayhere, Yahoo here, Paradehere and The New York Posthere. Dolly promoted the show, as was announced here several weeks ago, with a Tuesday performance on NBC's The Voice to perform "Jolene" with Pentatonix and Miley Cyrus and the project's theme song, "Circle Of Love," with Jennifer Nettles and the top 10 finalists from The Voice (due to her tour stop in Florida on Tuesday night, she taped her performances with Monday night's live audience on the program instead of performing live on Tuesday). Watch those performances here and here or in the media players above and below. Dolly also appears on the syndicated The Real on Wednesday. Print, television and online interviews about the project appeared in recent days in The Los Angeles Timeshere, Sounds Like Nashvillehere and here, 11 Alive News here, Timehere, E! Onlinehere, The Huffington Posthere, CBS 8 here, Uproxxhere, Reuters here, Rotten Tomatoeshere, AOL's The Boothere and The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journalhere. Digital downloads of the film should be available here starting Thursday, while the DVD will be released here and Blu-Ray here, both Dec. 20. Last year's Dolly Parton's Coat Of Many Colors was re-ssued on Blu-Ray here on Tuesday.
Tour Moves Through Gulf Coast Meanwhile, Dolly's Pure & Simple Tour resumed its final leg post-Thanksgiving with shows Saturday in Tampa, Sunday in Sunrise, Fla., and Tuesday in Pensacola. The tour moves to New Orleans Wednesday night before starting its series of Texas dates on Friday and Saturday. Reviews of the Tampa show were released by Creative Loafing Tampahere and The Tampa Bay Timeshere. Dolly also participated in a Q&A with journalists, part of which made The Pensacola News Journal in advance of her show there here.
U.S., Aussie Chart Updates Just 14 weeks after release, Dolly's Pure & Simple has passed 85,000 copies sold in the U.S. Last week's sales of about 2,400 units allowed the album to slip one to No. 11 on the Americana/folk albums chart and five to No. 34 country albums, the Dec. 10 Billboard numbers released Tuesday showed. Her Oct. 1 and 2 dates at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles made the magazine's Box Score for the week at No. 4, grossing $2.5 million with 89 percent of the 31,957 available tickets sold. Dolly's "Hard Candy Christmas" slips seven on the holiday digital songs list to No. 40, while Once Upon A Christmas with Kenny Rogers rises two to No. 29 holiday albums, five on the country catalog albums chart to No. 2, 15 on the overall catalog albums tally to No. 12, and eight on the Canadian pop albums chart to No. 56, while re-entering the top 100 overall album sales chart at No. 99. The "Forever Country" mash-up with Dolly loses four to No. 19 country digital songs and three to No. 31 hot country songs, falling off the Canadian digital songs, down from No. 38, Canadian country airplay, down from No. 44, and Canadian pop songs, down from No. 83. Down Under, My Dear Companion: Selections From The Trio Collection by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt loses one to No. 3 on the Australian country albums chart in its 11th week, it was announced Sunday, while Dolly's Pure & Simple dips two to No. 18 country in its 14th chart week.
Nov. 26: Dolly: Remaining NBC Projects -- 'Jolene,' Christmas Special So what will follow Wednesday's Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love with Dolly's NBC partnership? She told The Tennesseanhere that the project fulfils the second movie obligation in her four-picture deal with the network. The two remaining projects will be an adaptation of "Jolene" and a variety show Christmas special next year to tie in with her holiday album to be released in 2017. However, if next week's movie has ratings similar to the record-breaking ones for last year's Dolly Parton's Coat Of Many Colors, several key cast members have committed for a potential weekly series that would be called Life Of Many Colors. Apparently, previously-announced future adaptations of "The Seeker" and "Here You Come Again" won't be pursued at this time.
U.K. Chart Updates The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe this week holds steady at No. 1 British country compilation albums chart in its 11th week, giving the CD 10 nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the tally, it was announced Friday. On the same tally, 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 Linda Ronstadt) drops four to No. 9, Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) dips one to No. 7, and Harris' Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) holds steady at No. 18. On the overall country albums chart, Dolly's Pure & Simple inches down one to No. 4 country in its 14th week, falling off the physical CD sales tally, down from No. 94.
Nov. 25: 'Circle Of Love' Promotions Heat Up
NBC on Wednesday released a sing-along teaser for Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love with Dolly and a choir performing an excerpt from the main theme song "Circle Of Love." Watch it here or in the media player above. On Thursday, Dolly's publicist announced her schedule of TV appearances to promote the film, all of which except one have already been reported here: a Nov. 30 stop by the syndicated program The Real. In addition, they revealed she will appear on the syndicated radio program Keep The Faith on Sunday. The previously-reported other appearances include Friday's Today show, Tuesday's The Voice and Wednesday's Christmas In Rockefeller Center immediately prior to the broadcast of the movie. Newspaper insert Parade features her as the cover girl this weekend, at left. Check out their profile here. In related news, additional coverage of the Dollywood red carpet premiere came from USA Todayhere, Local 8 News here and The Knoxville News-Sentinelhere. Somewhat related, interviews that focused more on her current tour but mentioned the project came out this week from AOL's The Boothere and In Weeklyhere.
Dolly On Trump: Change 'Scary' But We'll 'Be Fine' What does Dolly think of President-Elect Donald Trump. After earlier in the campaign saying nice things about Hillary Clinton's qualifications and the prospect of the first female president when asked (she was not asked about her opinion of Trump at that time) , although she quickly clarified it was not an endorsement, and then in another interview calling both candidates "nuts," Phoenix station 12 News asked for her post-election assessment here: "Give yourself and everyone else a chance. We have a new president coming in and it's scary to have this much change all of a sudden but I think we're going to be great, and we'll be greater still. . . This is the land of opportunity and I believe we'll always fight for it. No matter who we have to fight for it, we'll make sure to keep our values and principals. I think we're going to be fine."
Dolly, Stella On BBC Radio 2 For Christmas BBC Radio 2 has announced a Dolly special for Christmas Eve. She and her sister Stella recount their favorite Appalachian Christmas memories that evening.
U.S. Chart Updates In its 13th week, Dolly's Pure & Simple sold another 2,200 units to total 82,500 U.S. sales since release, allowing it to remain in the top 10 Americana/folk albums and top 30 country albums. On Billboard's Dec. 3 country tally, the set dips two to No. 29, while on the Americana list it inches down one to No. 10. Her Nov. 18 Charleston concert comes in at No. 13 on the week's Box Score list with a gross of $610,275 off of 85 percent of the venue's 7,992 available seats sold. "Jolene" by Penatonix with Dolly falls off the country songs tally, down from No. 50. Dolly's "Hard Candy Christmas" gains three on the holiday digital songs list to No. 33, while Once Upon A Christmas with Kenny Rogers rises two to No. 31 holiday albums, one on the country catalog albums chart to No. 6 and seven on the overall catalog albums tally to No. 27 while re-entering the Canadian pop albums chart at No. 64. "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Brad Paisley falls off the Christian digital songs chart, down from No. 49. The "Forever Country" mash-up with Dolly loses five to No. 15 country digital songs, 11 to No. 38 Canadian digital songs, four to No. 44 Canadian country airplay, three to No. 28 hot country songs and 15 to No. 83 Canadian pop, falling off digital songs, down from No. 49.
Nov. 22: NBC Releases 'Circle Of Love' First Look
NBC on Monday released a new behind-the-scenes "First Look" at Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love, which airs Nov. 30 and has a red carpet premiere at Dollywood on Tuesday. Check it out on YouTube here. In related news, a Jennifer Nettles interview with The Gwinnet Daily Post about the project was posted here and Dolly chatted with AOL's The Boot on the project here.
New Interviews Released As Dolly's Pure & Simple Tour takes a Thanksgiving break, several local media interviews for upcoming concerts were released with The Charlotte Observerhere, South Florida.comhere, WBIR here and The Tampa Herald Tribunehere.
Australian Chart Updates Ten weeks into its chart run, My Dear Companion: Selections From The Trio Collection by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt gains one this week at No. 2 on the Australian country albums chart, it was announced Sunday, while Dolly's Pure & Simple rises four to No. 16 country in its 13th chart week.
NBC on Tuesday released a new, longer trailer for Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love as its Nov. 30 premiere approaches. Watch it here or in the media player above. In related news, Dolly has been announced as a guest on the Friday, Nov. 25, Today show on NBC, presumably to promote the movie. She'll appear during the 7 a.m.-9 a.m. segment. Just Jared shared some behind-the-scenes photos here. Also, a limited-edition "Coat Of Many Colors" Christmas ornament has been sold the last few weeks at Dollywood and is available online here.
Pigeon Forge Show Opens Tour's Final Leg Dolly was spectacular Tuesday night in a sold-out 10,000-person hometown crowd in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., to open the fourth and final leg of her Pure & Simple Tour, a charity concert that raised $500,000 for her Imagination Library charity. Look for photos here soon! She debuted some new jokes (such as talking about her husband's asphalt business when he was flirting with the bank teller who inspired "Jolene" and if he didn't stop it would be "his ass and his fault"), laughed when some Apple product tied into the sound system announced "Siri is not available," cried as she spoke of her father in introducing "Smoky Mountain Memories," featured screens on the sides of the stage (that showed her on stage for what I believe was the first time on the tour) and saw her premiere a new segment to her encore: between "I Will Always Love You" and "Hello God"/"He's Alive," she recited most of the lyrics to her song "In The Meantime" and then sang a chorus of "Farther Along," which I understand she also did in Huntsville the following night. Also during the concert, she made her first public statements about her Library recently passing the milestone a few weeks ago of enrolling more than 1 million children in a single month worldwide, meaning the program placed its first million-book order for one month. She revealed that one recent enrollee, 2-year-old Evey Johns of Conway, Ark., would receive a $30,000 contribution into a college savings plan that will result in a $50,000 scholarship- when she enters college, in celebration of the growth, which a press release noted now makes her charity the largest early childhood literacy program in the world. Coverage of the concert is available from Local 8 News here, WATE here, and The Knoxille News-Sentinelhere. The tour continued to Alabama on Wednesday, with reviews from Huntsville by CMT.com here and Sounds Like Nashvillehere, while Far Out Magazine raved about her recent San Diego performance here.Interviews came from Charlotte Magazinehere in advance of Saturday's show there and LGBT publication Watermarkhere before her post-Thanksgiving show in Tampa and Pensacola's NPR station WUWF here.
Dolly Tree Part Of Opryland Parade Dolly once again has donated a tree to Opryland Hotel's Parade of Trees. The "Coat Of Many Colors"- inspired tree features Dolly family photos and wheels of patchwork fabric. The auction winner also receives a two-night stay in Dolly's DreamMore penthouse with a $200 spa credit, admission for two to Dollywood, two tickets to Dixie Stampede, two "Coat Of Many Colors" ornaments, two signed copies of the Coat Of Many Colors children's book and two signed DVDs of Dolly Parton's Coat Of Many Colors. The value of the package is $2,000 and bids remain open until 11 a.m. Central time Jan. 1. As of press time, the bidding was at $1,500. Learn more here.
U.S., U.K. Chart Updates The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe this week holds steady at No. 1 British country compilation albums chart in its 10th week, giving the CD nine nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the tally, it was announced Friday. On the same tally, 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 Linda Ronstadt) gains four to No. 5, Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) moves up one to No. 6, and Harris' Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) moves up two to No. 18. On the overall country albums chart, Dolly's Pure & Simple holds steady at No. 3 country in its 13th week, losing 19 to No. 94 physical CD sales and falling out of the top 100 overall sales and Scottish albums, down from No. 94 and No. 82, respectively. Stateside, the No. 26 Billboard tallies released Tuesday had Dolly's Pure & Simple gain four to No. 27 country albums and one to No. 9 Americana/folk albums in its 12th week. "Jolene" by Penatonix with Dolly earns a fifth chart week dipping one to No. 50 country songs and off the country digital downloads list, down from No. 48. Dolly's "Hard Candy Christmas" moves up one on the holiday digital songs list to No. 35, while Once Upon A Christmas with Kenny Rogers rises eight to No. 33 holiday albums and 10 on the country catalog albums chart to No. 7 while re-entering the overall catalog albums tally at No. 27. "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Brad Paisley loses seven on the Christian digital songs chart to No. 49 and falls off the Christian/gospel digital songs chart, down from No. 43. The "Forever Country" mash-up with Dolly slides one to No. 10 country digital songs, one to No. 27 Canadian digital songs, five to No. 40 Canadian country airplay, seven to No. 25 hot country songs, 13 to No. 49 digital songs and seven to No. 68 Canadian pop.
Dolly Up For People's Choice Award Dolly on Tuesday was nominated for a 2017 People's Choice Award for Favorite Female Country Artist, facing off against Carrie Underwood, Kelsea Ballerini, Miranda Lambert and Reba at the Jan. 18 awards live on CBS. You may vote daily for her here.
Team Miley Sings Dolly On 'Voice' Team Miley on Tuesday sang Dolly's "There'll Always Be Music" on NBC's The Voice. Check out the performance here.
Australian Chart Update My Dear Companion: Selections From The Trio Collection by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt holds steady this week at No. 3 on the Australian country albums chart in its ninth week, it was announced Sunday, with the collection dropping falling out of the top 50 pop albums, down from No. 45, while Dolly's Pure & Simple dips three to No. 20 country in its 12th chart week.
Nov. 12: More 'Christmas Of Many Colors' Details Come Out As the Nov. 30 premiere date for Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love on NBC approaches, we are getting a little more information about the project. Dolly spoke with Hello Giggles about the film here, which reveals it will be available for digital download Dec. 1, the day after broadcast, in advance of the Dec. 20 DVD release. She also explained in People that the blizzard in the movie was a real occurrence from her childhood where the family was trapped in their home without heat and tears froze to their faces. Read that here.
Trio Back On Top Of U.K. Chart The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe this week moves up one to No. 1 British country compilation albums chart in its ninth week, giving the CD eight nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 on the tally, it was revealed Friday. On the same tally, 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 Linda Ronstadt) gains 10 to No. 9, Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) moves up five to No. 7, and Harris' Original Album Series, Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) re-enters the top 20 at No. 20. On the overall country albums chart, Dolly's Pure & Simple holds steady at No. 3 country in its 12th week, losing 13 to No. 94 overall sales, 12 to No. 75 physical CD sales and one to No. 82 Scottish albums.
Dolly Talks As Tour Resumes As Dolly's Pure & Simple Tour kicks off its fourth and final leg next week, Dolly recently held a telephone press conference, which The Knoxville News-Sentinel recapped here.
Cleveland Paper Touts Dolly Covers The Cleveland Plain Dealer, newspaper in the home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, this week released a list of the 25 greatest cover songs of the past quarter-century, and Dolly has two entries: No. 25 with her cover of "Stairway To Heaven" and No. 6 with Whitney Houston's cover of her composition "I Will Always Love You." See the full list here.
Dollywood's Christmas Festival Profiled Dollywood's Smoky Mountain Christmas is profiled by WJHL here and Ottumwa Courierhere.
Nov. 9: U.S. Chart Updates Although Dolly's Pure & Simple last week sold the same number of copies as it did the previous week, 2,300 units to push its cumulative sales since release to 77,900 in 11 weeks, the title drops 11 places to No. 31 country albums but inches up three to No. 10 Americana/folk albums, according to Billboard's Nov. 19 tallies released Tuesday. Another date from her Pure & Simple Tour shows up on the magazine's Box Score chart at No. 87 with her sold-out show at the 2,949-seat Vina Robles Amphitheatre in Paso Robles, Calif., on Sept. 28 grossing $340,290. "Jolene" by Penatonix with Dolly earns a fourth chart week losing 12 to No. 49 country songs and 22 to No. 48 country digital downloads, falling off the pop digital downloads list, down from No. 44. Dolly's "Hard Candy Christmas" re-enters the holiday digital songs list at No. 36, while Once Upon A Christmas with Kenny Rogers holds steady at No. 41 holiday albums and re-enters the country catalog albums chart for the first time this season at No. 17. "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Brad Paisley re-enters the Christian digital songs chart at No. 42 and Christian/gospel digital songs chart at No. 43. The "Forever Country" mash-up with Dolly slides two to No. 9 country digital songs, two to No. 26 Canadian digital songs, one to No. 35 Canadian country airplay and off the digital songs tally, down from No. 40. The song re-enters the country streaming chart at No. 17 and rises one to No. 18 country songs, five to No. 61 Canadian pop and four to No. 36 digital songs.
'Drinking With Dolly' Premieres On CMT Stephanie Quayle's music video for "Drinking With Dolly" debuted Tuesday on CMT. Watch it here.
Nov. 8: Second 'Circle' Trailer Released
NBC on Monday released the second trailer for Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love. Watch it on YouTube here or in the media player above. In related news, the network has made the original Dolly Parton's Coat Of Many Colors available for free online streaming here for a limited time, and Mary Lane Hakell, who plays Dolly's teacher in the film, stopped by Today to chat about the movie. Watch it here. Dolly's new film debuts Nov. 30.
Nov. 7: Australian Chart Updates Eight weeks into its chart run, My Dear Companion: Selections From The Trio Collection by Dolly, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt remains in the top three of the Australian country albums chart, slipping one to No. 3, it was revealed Sunday, with the collection dropping 20 spots to No. 45 pop albums, while Dolly's Pure & Simple loses five to No. 17 country in its 11th chart week.
Billboard: CMA Appearance Could Mean Grammy Nod Billboard magazine thinks artists who appeared on last week's 50th anniversary CMA Awards have increased their chances at being nominated for a Grammy this year, including Dolly. The publication explains here that they often nominate veteran artists and one former trustee told them: "I bet you 10-to-1 Dolly pulls off a Grammy nomination for Pure and Simple. Her profile is so out there again all of a sudden, from the Hollywood Bowl to the CMA tribute. It'll be interesting to see if her album doesn't rise up out of pure Dolly love."
Chenoweth Takes 'Sparrow' To Broadway Kristin Chenoweth has opened her limited-engagement 12-performance Broadway concert, which The Hollywood Reporter loved here, and while she promises each of the 12 nights will feature a slightly different set list, her first night featured her take on Dolly's "Little Sparrow" that has been the highlight of her tour.
Nov. 5: 'Christmas Of Many Colors' Trailer Released
NBC on Friday released the first trailer for Nov. 30's broadcast of Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love, which will be released on DVD Dec. 20. Watch the commercial in the media player above or by visiting YouTube here. Dolly and Jennifer Nettles on Thursday held a press conference to promote the film. Check out coverage of that from WKRN here. Also, you may recall, Dollymania.net was the first to reveal back in August that Dolly would perform on NBC's annual Christmas In Rockefeller Center this year and was filming her songs in New York City that month, but the network didn't officially announce her involvement until this week when they revealed that the special will serve as the lead-in program for the Nov. 30 premiere of Dolly's movie. The special will also feature Tony Bennett, Neil Diamond, Josh Groban, Tori Kelly, Sarah McLachlan, Jordan Smith, Garth Brooks & Trisha Yearwood and the Radio City Rockettes. Dolly also revealed this week on Access Hollywood that she will appear on NBC's The Voice on Nov. 29 to promote the movie and will perform the "Circle Of Love" theme song as a duet with Nettles and her classic "Jolene" with both Pentatonix and show coach Miley Cyrus. Watch the clip here.
CMA Honors Dolly For Lifetime Achievement
The Country Music Association on Wednesday honored Dolly with its Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. Her career was recognized with a 10-minute star-studded medley of "Jolene," "9 To 5," "Here You Come Again" and "I Will Always Love You" featuring Jennifer Nettles, Pentatonix, Reba (who flubbed the first line of "9 To 5" when she became distracted by seeing Dolly in the audience), Kasey Musgrave, Carrie Underwood and Martina McBride while Lily Tomlin presented the award. Dolly joked that the award was a "high" honor and praised Nettles' acting and plugged the upcoming film sequel. She thanked her fans, Uncle Bill Owens, Cas Walker, Betty Killen, Fred Foster and Porter Wagoner before noting she had a full speech prepared but was unable to give it because the show had run over its allotted time. Watch the full tribute and acceptance in the media player above or by visiting Sounds Like Nashvillehere. The website also posted some of Dolly's backstage comments to the press after the award presentation here. And Dolly was among several artists to participate in a country-themed version of "Mean Tweets" on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live after the awards. Watch that bit here. Dolly's press surrounding the awards included an interview with Entertainment Tonighthere, a piece in In Style magazine where she interviewed Reese Witherspoon that was summarized in Peoplehere and a phone interview with WJHL here.
U.K. Chart Updates After seven consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the British country compilation albums chart, The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe this week inches down one to No. 2 in its eighth week. On the same tally 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 Linda Ronstadt) drops five to No. 19 and Ronstadt's Original Album Series (featuring one Dolly cover and one track with Dolly harmony) rises six to No. 12. On the overall country albums chart, Dolly's Pure & Simple holds steady at No. 3 country in its 11th week, slipping seven to No. 81 overall sales, and four to No. 63 physical CD sales and 29 to No. 81 Scottish albums.
Burns Documentary Sits Down With Dolly Ken Burns is still working on his documentary on country music and just interviewed Dolly for the project, WBRC reported here. The filmmaker noted: "She's smart, she's talented, one of the great composers of all time, one of the great singers of all time. When you put that in a package, you've got a force of nature. We just look at her and think, 'thank God I live during a time when Dolly Parton's alive.'"
CNN Profiles Dolly's Library Dolly's Imagination Library literacy program garnered some international coverage this week with a profile on CNN here.
Nov. 2: 'Pure & Simple' Passes 75,000 U.S. Copies Ten weeks into its chart life, Dolly's Pure & Simple last week sold 2,300 units to push its cumulative U.S. sales past the 75,000 mark to 75,600 copies since release. Unfortunately, the numbers weren't high enough to earn the album a 10th week in the country top 10 albums, as it loses 13 places to No. 20 this week on the Nov. 12 Billboard tallies. The set also dips three to No. 13 Americana/folk and falls off the top 200 pop albums chart, down from No. 188, current albums chart, down from No. 49, and overall album sales chart, down from No. 54. Thanks to the attention of Penatonix's new Christmas album debuting this week, their collaboration with Dolly on "Jolene," formerly a top 20 country single, returns for a third chart week at No. 37 country songs, No. 26 country digital downloads and No. 44 pop digital downloads. Dolly's "Hard Candy Christmas" falls off the holiday digital songs list, down from No. 37, while Once Upon A Christmas with Kenny Rogers slips 14 to No. 41 holiday albums. The "Forever Country" mash-up with Dolly dips one to No. 19 country songs, three to No. 7 country digital songs, nine to No. 40 digital songs, seven to No. 24 Canadian digital songs, and four to No. 66 Canadian pop, while rising two to No. 34 Canadian country airplay. It falls off streaming country songs, down from No. 20.
Store: Glastonbury Vinyl Coming Thanks to Solomon for the heads-up that Barnes & Noble is showing a Dec. 2 release date for a vinyl edition of Dolly's Live From Glastonbury, the same date that Amazon shows an import release of Pure & Simple on vinyl. No other details have been uncovered.
Penatonix, Nettles Sing For Dolly At CMAs The 50th CMA Awards are Wednesday night and the first details were released Tuesday about the tribute to Dolly for her Lifetime Achievement Award: Jennifer Nettles will perform "Jolene" with a capella group Penatonix, who recently took the song to the country top 20 as a collaboration with Dolly. The awards show airs at 8 p.m. on ABC.
Dollywood Readies Smoky Mountain Christmas Dollywood's Smoky Mountain Christmas festival begins Saturday and runs through Jan. 1. Additions this year include the Parade of Many Colors (starting mid-month) and It's A Wonderful Life musical stage show plus a remastered Christmas In The Smokies, four million lights throughout the park and the return of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. In a press release issued on Tuesday, Dolly noted: "Christmas is such a special time of year for me because some of my most precious memories are the wonderful times I had with my family during the holidays as a kid. It's the time of year when our traditions, along with our faith and the love of family, combine to create those sweet experiences we always remember. After all of the things I've been able to see and do in my life, it's the times from those Christmases with my family I still hold most dear. I know the families who come to visit my Dollywood during this beautiful time of year will leave with some of those same moments they'll treasure forever."
NBC on Wednesday released a sing-along teaser for Dolly Parton's Christmas Of Many Colors: Circle Of Love with Dolly and a choir performing an excerpt from the main theme song "Circle Of Love." Watch it here or in the media player above. On Thursday, Dolly's publicist announced her schedule of TV appearances to promote the film, all of which except one have already been reported here: a Nov. 30 stop by the syndicated program The Real. In addition, they revealed she will appear on the syndicated radio program Keep The Faith on Sunday. The previously-reported other appearances include Friday's Today show, Tuesday's The Voice and Wednesday's Christmas In Rockefeller Center immediately prior to the broadcast of the movie. Newspaper insert Parade features her as the cover girl this weekend, at left. Check out their profile here. In related news, additional coverage of the Dollywood red carpet premiere came from USA Today here, Local 8 News here and The Knoxville News-Sentinel here. Somewhat related, interviews that focused more on her current tour but mentioned the project came out this week from AOL's The Boot here and In Weekly here.