Dolly Parton Girl Singer Part I

Dolly Parton was born in 1946 in rural Tennessee. She has been known to joke that she was the “only person who left the Smokey mountains and took them with her”, because of her large bosom. I’ve written a lot about country artists in this blog but so far, I haven’t mentioned the female ones. Women were considered of less importance in certain country circles, in its earliest days. Although Sara and Maybelle Carter of the Carter Family were two seminal figures, women were often “put down” as “girl singers” and considered to be just eye candy or at best pretty singers.
 The conservatism of country meant that women were supposed to be mothers and home makers. There are plenty of schmaltzy country songs about Motherhood! But if they stepped outside that path, to become career women or to have unconventional sex lives, they were often criticised.
 In the 1950s Kitty Wells’ song “It wasn’t God Who made honky-tonk angels” was a defence of women who were attacked for sleeping around, when men did the same thing. Dolly however is one of the most famous women in country music. In addition she has had great success with her cross- over hits in the Pop charts. She is a keen businesswoman, making a fortune from her theme Park “Dollywood”. She has also had a career as an actress.
Born just after World War Two, she came to maturity and became famous in the early 60s when roles for women were changing and she took advantage of this. She came from a poor and large family but she had a strong singing voice, and at an early age music was very important to her family. At the age of ten she was singing on local radio and TV programs. In 1964 at the age of 18, she moved to Nashville and had an initial success as a song writer. She worked with her uncle Bill Owen and her songs did well. In 1966 she married Carl Dean whom she met soon after her move to Nashville, when she was washing her clothes in a laundromat.
 Carl has always been determined to avoid publicity. He is rarely seen but he and Dolly have now been married for over 50 years, in spite of gossip about their marriage. She also began to sing, but at first was felt to be suited to light and pop type songs. Her voice, while good, was not as exceptional as many other women singers. But her heart was always in country and in the early 70s, she recorded one of her most famous and heart felt songs, Coat of Many Colours” based on a childhood incident where her family were too poor to buy her a new coat.