Dec. 7: The new issue of gay and lesbian newsmagazine The Advocate chooses Dolly's concert CD Live And Well as its No. 2 pick for the best last-minute holiday gifts, calling the collection: "a cheeky marriage of glitzy showbiz with finger-pickin' bluegrass sass full of hits and surprises."

Dec. 6: The Louisville Courier-Journal over the weekend offered its opinion on Dolly's live CD/DVD set Live And Well, and it's pretty much the first negative review I've seen of the collection, saying it "doesn't add up." Read it here.

Dec. 3: The live double-CD Live And Well, loses four spots to No. 74 on the country albums chart in its 11th chart week, according to the Dec. 11 Billboard charts released Thursday.

Nov. 26: Dolly's concert CD set, Live And Well, inches down two to No. 70 on the country albums chart in its 10th chart week, according to the Dec. 4 Billboard charts released Thursday.

Nov. 19: Dolly's live double-album set, Live And Well, falls seven more spots to No. 68, near the bottom of the 75-position country albums chart in its ninth chart week, according to the Nov. 27 Billboard charts released Thursday.

Nov. 12: Dolly's live double-CD set, Live And Well, inches down two more spots to No. 61 on the country albums chart in its eighth chart week, according to the Nov. 20 Billboard charts released Thursday. The collection falls out of the 50-position independent labels albums chart, down from No. 42 the previous week.

Nov. 6: I'm told that at the end of Dolly's interview which aired on CMT Canada Friday night, she was presented with a gold plaque for sales of Live And Well CD and DVD in Canada. The Canadian Recording Industry Association, which issues gold and platinum albums in that country, has apparently not published its report of October certifications yet, but if they have been certified at that level, it would mean at least 50,000 units of the CD and/or 5,000 units of the DVD have been sold up north. Thanks, Leesa!

Nov. 5: Dolly's concert CD Live And Well falls nine more places to No. 59 on the country albums chart in its seventh chart week, according to the Nov. 13 Billboard charts released Thursday. The double-CD live collection also drops three notches to No. 42 on the independent labels albums chart.

Oct. 29: Dolly's concert CD Live And Well slides two notches to No. 50 on the country albums chart in its sixth chart week, according to the Nov. 6 Billboard charts released Thursday. The double-CD also falls six places to No. 39 on the independent labels albums chart.

Oct. 25: The Pittsburg Post-Gazette on Sunday gave Dolly’s concert CD, Live And Well, its highest rating, four out of four stars, lauding her cover of “Stairway To Heaven” as the one even those tired of the song should hear and the rest of the set as inspired as that tune’s rebirth. The reviewer concludes: “Parton, simply put, is a monumental interpreter of musical Americana.” Read the full review here.

Oct. 23: Two additional rave reviews of Dolly's Live And Well concert CD hit readers on Friday. Gay paper The Washington Blade here said the CD "doesn't disappoint" and that "is a must have" for Dolly fans. And The Smoky Mountain News said here that the collection "catches her in full cackling delight" and that those who check out the disc will see that Dolly "is live and well indeed."

Oct. 22: Dolly's concert CD Live And Well slides two places to No. 48 on the country albums chart in its fifth chart week, according to the Oct. 30 Billboard charts released Thursday. The double-CD also falls two notches to No. 33 on the independent labels albums chart.

Oct. 21: The Richmond Times Dispatch gave Dolly's concert collection Live And Well a strong "A-" in a review published Wednesday, saying she "flexes a voice as familiar as the color red on a Coke can." Read the full review here.

Oct. 15: Dolly's concert CD Live And Well remains steady in its fourth chart week to come in at No. 46 country in the Oct. 23 Billboard charts released Thursday. The two-CD set dips one spot to No. 31 on the independent labels albums chart.

Oct. 11: Dolly's concert CD Live And Well falls out of the top 40 independent labels albums chart in the U.K. this week, down from No. 34, it was announced Sunday. Down Under, the CD also falls out of the top 20 country albums chart, down from No. 16 last week.

Oct. 8: Dolly's concert CD Live And Well loses nine more places in its third chart week to come in at No. 46 country in the Oct. 16 Billboard charts released Thursday. The two-CD set also falls three spots to No. 30 on the independent labels albums chart.

Oct. 4: Dolly’s concert CD Live And Well doesn’t make the top 50 pop albums chart Down Under this week but does debut at No. 16 on the Australian country albums chart, it was announced Sunday. Thanks, Sean! The collection also doesn’t make the top 75 pop albums chart in Great Britain but does debut at No. 34 on the U.K. independent labels albums chart this week, it was also announced Sunday.

Oct. 2: The day after posting a review of the CD version of Live And Well, The Nashville City Paper on Friday offered its opinion on the DVD companion concert, saying Dolly delivers "triumphant versions" of her songs and that the show is "expertly, if conservatively, shot, and the music is nicely sequenced and produced." Read the full review here.

Oct. 1: Dolly's concert CD Live And Well loses 15 places in its second chart week to come in at No. 37 country in the Oct. 9 Billboard charts released Thursday. The double-disc set also falls 15 spots to No. 27 on the independent labels albums chart and falls out of both the pop and comprehensive albums charts, down from No. 161 and No. 176, respectively. The DVD version falls out of the top 40 music videos, down from No. 36.

Sept. 29: The new issue of Country Weekly is on newsstands this week, and as usual, there's plenty of Dolly. She gets a publicity photo with a brief story written based on the press release for the "Hello I'm Dolly" tour, a review of Live And Well that gives the collection three out of four stars and a recap of her cover story from eight years ago in the magazine's country history section.

Sept. 27: Britain’s Sunday Herald this weekend gave Live And Well four out of five stars, calling the set’s song selection “tailored to satisfy the entire diverse spectrum of her fan base,” singling out her cover of “Stairway To Heaven” and her original vocals on the Whitney Houston-covered “I Will Always Love You.” The reviewer notes that the minimal editing preserves her “non-stop chat and banter with the audience” and adds that the collection underlines “her reputation as a superbly generous entertainer.” Read the full review here.

Sept. 24: Dolly's concert CD Live And Well debuts at No. 22 country, this week's highest-debuting country CD to earn it the chart's "Hot Shot Debut" designation. The album also debuts at No. 12 indie and No. 176 comprehensive in the Oct. 2 Billboard charts released Thursday. As was reported here Wednesday night, the CD debuts at No. 161 pop. The DVD version debuts at No. 36 for music videos but doesn't make the top 40 overall DVDs.

Sept. 23: Dolly's concert CD Live And Well will debut at No. 161 on the Oct. 2 pop albums chart, Billboard announced on Wednesday. That number should put it around the mid-20s (maybe No. 24 or 25) on the country albums chart, figures for which will be released on Thursday.

Sept. 22: The Los Angeles Daily News recently reviewed Dolly’s concert CD and DVD collection Live And Well, saying: “Overall, the band is tight and her voice is great, but the most entertaining aspect of the whole shebang is Parton's trashy, sassy between-songs patter.” Read the full mini-review as published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer here this week. The Associated Press also on Tuesday issued its review of the DVD set. Read it from New Hampshire’s Concord Monitor here.

Sept. 20: The Huntsville Times on Sunday had a great recap of Dolly's CD signing there on Saturday, noting that security estimated the crowd to be at least 800 but other estimates were as high as 2,000 fans getting their memorabilia signed at the city's Wal-Mart. Read it here. A story from Sunday's Evansville Courier-Press recounts her stop in the Indiana city here and in its sister paper, The Gleaner in Henderson, Ky., here. And Clarksville, Tenn.'s The Leaf Chronicle carried a mention of the Ft. Campbell signing before it took place Saturday here.

Sept. 18: Dolly made her second CD and DVD signing appearance for Live And Well on Friday evening, this time at the Huntsville, Ala., Wal-Mart. I'm told she was as bubbly as ever greeting fans young and old, and while she wore the same top as in the DVD concert and the Sam's signings outside of Nashville Tuesday, this time she opted for a skirt instead of the Capri pants donned before. Remember her final two scheduled autograph sessions are taking place on Saturday (noon until 2 p.m. at the Ft. Campbell military base in Kentucky and 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the Wal-Mart on Burkhardt Road in Evansville, Ind.). The local Evansville Courier Press had a cute story here Friday about the event scheduled there, noting that the first 300 are guaranteed an autograph (but those after them will get in if there's time) and announcing that more than 1,600 fans showed up at her signing on Tuesday. See some additional photos from the Sam's stop and a couple from Huntsville here courtesy of fans Scott, Chris and Robin. Thanks, guys! (And, again, any other fans who attend the signings are encouraged to send in their pictures here.)

Sept. 17: Dolly's Tuesday CD and DVD signing at Sam's Club outside of Nashville got a little coverage in Thursday's The Tennessean. Read a small story and see a photo here. And as of press time Thursday evening, Dolly's scheduled appearance at the Wal-Mart on Memorial Parkway South in Hunstville, Ala., from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. Friday was still on tap to happen. Whether the CD and DVD signing for Live And Well actually takes place, however, may depend on how much damage the remnants of Hurricane Ivan cause in the area. On Thursday afternoon, some of the worst of the storm entered the Huntsville area with torrential rains and winds of up to 40 miles per hour, but the rain is forecast to end and winds to die down significantly by morning. I would suspect if flooding is bad, they would cancel the appearance, but they really wouldn't know what the outlook is until morning. She is also scheduled to appear at Ft. Campbell military base in Kentucky at noon on Saturday and the Wal-Mart on Burkhardt Road in Evansville, Ind., at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Sept. 16: I'm told Dolly happily signed her way through at least 250 or 300 fans' CDs, DVDs and assorted memorabilia at the Sam's Club outside of Nashville on Tuesday evening to celebrate the release of her concert recording Live And Well. The store played Dolly's DVD concert all day long on big screens at the front door and several small televisions as well, as several hundred fans waited for a few seconds with their beloved star. Some die-hard fans began lining up at around 9 a.m. prior to the store's 10 a.m. opening. Dolly arrived at around 5 p.m. and was escorted in from her tour bus by security as she waved at fans outside. Sam's employees met with Dolly at 5:30 p.m. before she began a two-hour-and-10-minute autograph session at 6 p.m., running through four Sharpie pens. All smiles, Dolly talked with fans (appearing especially touched by the children she met that day, with the some kids being so excited that they cried as they met her), took photos with them and signed anything they brought her. See several galleries of photos from the event here. Thanks, Harrell, Patric and Debbie! (And any other fans who attended are encouraged to send in their pictures here to be added. Thanks!)

Sept. 15: Dolly was scheduled on Tuesday to hold her two-hour autograph session at Sam's Club outside of Nashville celebrating Tuesday's release of her concert recording Live And Well. (Fans who attended are encouraged to send in their recaps of the event and photographs here. Thanks!) Celebrities columnist Brad Schmidt in Tuesday's Tennessean reported that fans didn't even have to buy anything to get Dolly to sign it: She had agreed for the two-hour autograph session to sign a maximum of any two items brought by each fan as well as take photos with them. Read his column here here.

Sept. 14: Well, the big day is upon us! Dolly's concert double-CD and DVD Live And Well hit stores on Tuesday. And don't forget Dolly will be signing copies of the collection at the Sam's Club on Mallory Lane in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, Tenn., from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m. Tuesday (followed by signings Friday at a Wal-Mart in Huntsville, Ala., and Saturday at the military base Ft. Campbell, Ky., and a Wal-Mart in Evansville, Ind.).

Sept. 13: A reader alerted me to a Canadian review of Live & Well, Dolly's concert CD and DVD coming out Tuesday. Entertainment site Soulshine finds the collection "top form." Read it here. Thanks, Tony!

Sept. 11: Dolly is gearing up for one of her biggest weeks ever. The concert double-CD and DVD Live And Well hits stores in the U.S. on Tuesday (I'm told it was released this week in Canada. Thanks, Darren!). It will be released in other countries outside the U.S. on various dates over the next month or so. Get your copy of the CD here and DVD here! (And The Simpsons Gone Wild, a collection including Dolly's appearance on the animated sitcom, hits DVD shelves the same day.) As was first reported here a week ago, she's scheduled to appear at the Sam's Club in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, Tenn., for a 6 p.m.-8 p.m. CD and DVD signing on Tuesday, followed by signings at the Wal-Mart on Memorial Parkway South in Hunstville, Ala., from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. next Friday, and on Saturday, Sept. 18, she'll be at the Army base in Fort Campbell, Ky., from noon until 2 p.m. and at the Wal-Mart on Burkhardt Road in Evansville, Ind., from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. (It is unclear at this time whether members of the public are allowed to access the store at Ft. Campbell or if that will be open to military personnel only, and Army officials have not returned requests for such information.)

Sept. 8: Here are several developments on Dolly's live recording (reserve your copy of the CD here and DVD here!):

Sept. 4:Dolly has three public appearances scheduled in addition to the one in Huntsville, Ala., reported here Thursday night to sign copies of her new concert CD and DVD, Live And Well, Dollymania has confirmed and is pleased to be the first to announce. Sugar Hill Records says the following signings are planned for the week of the CD's Sept. 14 release:
Tuesday, Sept. 14, 6 p.m.-8 p.m., Sam's Club (Mallory Lane), Nashville, Tenn.
Friday, Sept. 17, 6 p.m.-8 p.m., Wal-Mart (Memorial Parkway South), Huntsville, Ala.
Saturday, Sept. 18, noon-2 p.m., Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Ft. Campbell, Ky.
Saturday, Sept. 18, 6 p.m.-8 p.m., Wal-Mart (Burkhardt Road), Evansville, Ind.

Sept. 3: Dolly may be planning a Wal-Mart tour later this month to promote her Live And Well CD and DVD release, Dollymania has learned. A store manager at the Huntsville, Ala., Wal-Mart at 11610 Memorial Parkway confirmed to the site Thursday night that Dolly is scheduled to make an appearance at the store there at 6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17. While the manager had no definite information on appearances at any other stores, it was noted that it is likely she will be making stops at additional Wal-Marts across the region. Further information is expected soon. Thanks, David and Jo-Ann!

Sept. 2: The Great American Country (GAC) cable network is offering fans a chance to get an autographed copy of Dolly's new double-CD live concert collection Live & Well. By ordering the CD from the network's Web site here, customers will receive one autographed by Dolly while supplies last. In celebration of the release, the network is also re-airing Dolly's U.S. Library of Congress Living Legend Award ceremony special this week (see TV listings on right-hand side of this page). Unfortunately for DirecTV customers, the special is apparently not currently scheduled to run after the network is added to the satellite provider's Total Choice Plus line-up Sept. 21. (* Note: Shortly after this was posted Wednesday evening, the site began showing the CD as unavailable, suggesting the autographed copies had sold out.)

Sept. 1: HMV Australia shows Dolly's Live And Well set being released Down Under on Oct. 4. Thanks, Sean! And both HMV UK and Amazon UK show it scheduled for British release on Sept. 27.

Aug. 31: Sugar Hill Records on Monday began its preview of Dolly's Sept. 14 release Live And Well, providing free Real Audio feed of the album's first two complete tracks, "Orange Blossom Special" and "Train, Train," on its Listening Room page here. (However, I had some difficulty accessing them and had to open up the Real Media program itself and choose "Open" and manually paste the URL into the program window for it to play instead of just clicking on the link from the label's Web site, but that might just be a problem with my computer.) And if you want to hear more than those two songs, remember CMT is offering the entire double-CD in steaming audio format here. Reserve your copy of the live CD here and DVD version here! (The disc also gets a brief mention in the fall preview section of The Advocate in its new issue.)

Aug. 28: Sugar Hill Records asked that I let everyone know that CMT.com has created an online listening party for Dolly's Sept. 14 live concert double-CD and DVD Live And Well. Visit the page here, and you can listen to the entire album! And reserve your copy of the CD here or DVD collection here. Thanks!

Aug. 21: Sugar Hill Records has started the ball rolling to promote Dolly's Sept. 14 double-CD and DVD live releases Live And Well with prominent banner ads on CMT.com for the CD version of the collection that started appearing on Friday.

Aug. 16: Phil over at Voice Of An Angel alerted me that The New Rainbow Club West, a gay club in Knoxville, will host a Live And Well preview party Sunday, Sept. 12, featuring an advance screening of the Dolly concert DVD to be released Sept. 14, several prizes from Sugar Hill Records and a Dolly Illusion Show with the drag queens all done up like Dolly at midnight. Thanks, Phil!

Aug. 14: Just a little over four weeks from its Sept. 14 release, Amazon.com on Friday added an advance order page for the double-CD version of Dolly's concert recording Live And Well, but without a discount. The set sells for the $19.98 list price. Reserve your copy here! (And don't forget to get the DVD version here for $16.51!)

Aug. 11: Sugar Hill Records has announced that beginning Aug. 23 the label will offer online samples from its Listening Room page here of Dolly's forthcoming live DVD and double-CD concert release, Live And Well, coming out Sept. 14. As a preview, they provided a link in an e-mail to the label's mailing list on Tuesday for a streaming audio version of the live performance of "Little Sparrow" here. Although no song samples from the label's Web site, including "Little Sparrow," were working as of Tuesday evening, perhaps the problem will have been corrected by the time you read this. Also, if you didn't reserve your copy of the DVD from Amazon.com when the store first put up an order page on Monday, you've missed out on a great deal. The store on Tuesday upped the pre-issue price for the DVD from $13.29 to the new price of $16.51, which is still way below the suggested retail price for the release. Reserve your copy here!

Aug. 10: While the site hasn't added a page yet to advance order the double-CD version, Amazon.com on Monday began accepting orders for the DVD version of Dolly's Sept. 14 live concert release Live And Well at the discounted price of $13.29 each. Reserve your copy here!

Aug. 5: Sugar Hill Records on Wednesday released four new shots of Dolly in concert to help publicize their Sept. 14 live CD and DVD release, Live & Well. View them here.

Aug. 3: Sugar Hill Records confirmed on Monday that Dolly's live CD and DVD set will be available in several countries, but in a break with previous tradition, the products will actually be released on the Sugar Hill label and just be distributed by other record distributors overseas, instead of being released by different labels as their Dolly CDs have been in the past. Executives confirm its release will be sometime around the U.S. issue date of Sept. 14, although final dates have not been released, in Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Scandinavia, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Thanks!

Aug. 2: Although I haven't confirmed it officially with Sugar Hill Records, some fans tell me they contacted the label and were told Dolly's live concert CDs and DVD will, in fact, be released in Europe in September. It was reported here Friday night that Sanctuary Records, which for the past five years has been the exclusive distributor of Dolly's Sugar Hill recordings in the U.K., confirmed they were not scheduled to release Live & Well overseas. Well, according to the fans who contacted the label, that's because the products will be released by someone other than Sanctuary. Instead, they will apparently come out on other labels in the U.K., Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Thanks, Gerard and Thea!

July 31: To answer questions posed to this site recently by Dolly fans in the U.K., a spokesman for Sanctuary Music Group, which has been distributing Dolly's Sugar Hill recordings in Europe, tells Dollymania that the label is not currently scheduled to release her Live & Well live CD and DVD overseas at this time. The collection comes out in the U.S. on Sept. 14.

July 30: Dollymania's review of Dolly's upcoming live double-CD and DVD releases was posted Thursday evening, the first one published, to my knowledge. Find out what I thought of the collection here.

July 17: Sugar Hill Records has revealed the suggested retail prices for the upcoming Dolly live concert CD and DVD packages, Live & Well. Each release will carry a recommended price of $19.99, which is what the label will sell the collections for on its own Web site, although many stores discount new releases below the regular retail prices. I haven't seen any online retailers taking advance orders yet, so there isn't any information on what discounts may be offered to shoppers. The label has also released the DVD cover art, shown at left, which utilizes the same image as the CD cover, just a little taller photo to accommodate the case's larger dimensions. As was first reported on Dollymania, the double CD collection and DVD set will both be released on Sept. 14.

July 9 (posted afternoon of July 8): Countless fans longing to see and hear Dolly's live concert taped at the Dollywood Celebrity Theatre in December 2002 only have two more months to wait, Dollymania is pleased to be the first media outlet to report. Live & Well will be released on Sept. 14 both as CD and DVD sets, Sugar Hill Records announced on Thursday. The 23-track, two-disc CD set or DVD set (you'll have to pay separately for each) will include all of the songs she performed at the show. Many fans will remember Dolly had recorded the concerts, which were fundraisers for her Dollywood Foundation, and had said in a newspaper interview last year they would air as a concert special on CMT, but that deal apparently fell through. This will mark Dolly's third concert album (her first in a decade), but it will be her first-ever live DVD release (in the U.S., at least; her 1985 Real Love concert with Kenny Rogers has been released on DVD in Asia only).