Now, I’m not a big fan of country, but Parton is such an endearing person in real life, and her voice has such a good mix of vulnerability and power that it’s hard to resist.
The autobiographical title track has all
the ingredients of a classic country song – family, faith, poverty, standing up
to bullies with dignity. It’s also one of several songs on this album with a mother-daughter
theme. In Coat, Parton’s mother unwittingly makes her daughter a figure of
ridicule at school by making a patchwork coat out of scraps, but it’s knowing
that this is a symbol of her mother’s love for her is what sustains Parton –
ultimately the coat remains a positive.
In If I Lose My Mind, we see a daughter
return to the safety of her mother after a bad relationship and, in one of the
few upbeat numbers on the album, Traveling Man has the daughter planning to run
off with the eponymous travelling man against her mothers’ wishes, only to
discover that her mother has run off with him instead. Anyone who’s seen her
films knows that Parton has good comedy chops, and this track is played for
fun.
Other tracks explore the simple joy in
nature – Early Morning Breeze is a beautiful and delicate song about the
natural world in the morning. And she likes butterflies, does our Dolly. They
crop up a few times in the lyrics, and this album doesn't even contain the song named after them. Probably my favourite track from the album
is the R&B/soul feeling Here I Am – you can just imagine Aretha singing
this. Or better yet, a duet with Parton and Franklin. Or the late great gospel
singer Marva Hicks (I understand that there’s one with Sia which I will track
down).
Comments
Post a Comment