Her father was a subsistence farmer.  Her mother tended the family household in which everything—food, clothes, toys—was homemade.

Yet against the odds, young Dolly Rebecca Parton, the fourth child in that family of twelve, lifted up her voice and became a worldwide phenomenon.

“I was born to be a singer and a songwriter,” Dolly told Adam Grant on his WorkLife podcast in 2022.  “It was a song that brought me out of the Smoky Mountains to Nashville.  It was a song that has taken me everywhere I want to go.  And out of that song, so many wonderful things have branched out for me.”

And where she has gone has been basically everywhere:  The Grand Ole Opry, Hollywood, Broadway, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and even her own theme park, Dollywood.

Join Great Moments in Vinyl when we pay tribute to the remarkable Dolly Parton…with a concert that celebrates the highlights of a career that is still ongoing…accompanied by stories about the music and the colorful characters who helped create it.

Look for us at the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre in Arlington Heights on April 4th, just in time to whet your appetite for the Dolly Parton musical 9 to 5 that opens at the MPAC on May 2nd.