DAVE'S DIARY - 18 OCTOBER 2003
DOLLY PARTON TRIBUTE VIDEO FOR NU COUNTRY TV
Maverick
singer Mindy Smith has recorded and co-produced her version of Jolene
for the new Dolly Parton Tribute disc, Just Because I'm A Woman.
We're proud to announce Dolly's Aussie distributor Shock Records has provided
us with Mindy's video clip of her rendition of the oft-covered Parton
song.
Meanwhile here is a short review of the album, released in Australia in
October with a stellar performance by Kasey Chambers.
CD REVIEW - JUST BECAUSE I'M A WOMAN
SONGS OF DOLLY PARTON (SUGAR HILL-SHOCK).
| It's
apt that Kasey Chambers was chosen for a Dolly Parton tribute disc
and recorded at brother Nash's Beach House studio at Copacabana on
the Central Coast of NSW. Despite being treated like a backwater by Australian commercial radio the genre is seen as a credible port in the U.S. tributary sales storm. So when Kasey cut the title track of Dolly's 2001 disc Little Sparrow she was a vibrant vehicle for the Appalachian cheating song. |
 |
"All
ye maidens hear my warning/ never trust the hearts of men/ they will crush
you like a sparrow/ leaving you to never mend."Kasey's role is symbolic
of the eclectic cast putting their spin on the music of the Smoky Mountains
minstrel, now 57 and celebrating 35 years of recording.
Alison Krauss & Union Station set the mood by doing a bluegrass cut
of Partons' 1980 movie title track smash hit 9 To 5.
And for those sucked into believing 1974 Parton classic I Will Always
Love You was a Whitney Houston song the Melissa Etheridge version destroys
that myth.
Norah Jones cameo on a Waylon Jennings tribute disc was no fluke - she
backs up with a smoky cut of The Grass Is Blue.
Sisters Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer reach back to 1975 and 1977 for
their cuts of The Seeker and Light Of A Clear Blue Morning.
It's no surprise that long time duet partner Emmylou Harris reprises To
Daddy - she first cut it on her 1976 disc Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town.
Those who shudder when Shania Twain joins Krauss & Union Station for
Coat Of Many Colours forget this was a 1971 album title track in Dolly's
first bluegrass era.
Equally successful are Joan Osborne's dynamite delivery of Do I Ever Cross
Your Mind, Sinead O'Connor's angst fuelled bluegrass on Dagger Through
The Heart and Me'Shell N'Geocello excelling on a groove driven Two Doors
Down.
That creativity extends to "novice' Mindy Smith on her riveting rendition
of the oft cut Jolene which she co-produced.
And Dolly, unlike Kinky Friedman, had to be cajoled into appearing on
a self tribute disc - she relented by revamping the title track of her
1968 album Just Because I'm A Woman as an soulful R & B belter.
Maybe adventurous radio hits and memories mausoleums will dust off their
corpses by adding one of these cuts to their facile formats.
They deserve to be heard way beyond community radio - DAVID DAWSON