Lauded as ‘
one of the prettiest, singinest, songwritinest (and you can probably add rootinest, tootinest for good measure)
little blondes in country music,’ it’s apparent that Dolly Parton’s country roots run deep. They’d have to! For as much as the public idea of Dolly Parton has ballooned into a Matel Corporation caricature of itself, Parton’s catalogue of undeniably honest songs and numerous achievements are a beacon for the kind of hard work and determination country music characterizes itself by. To her fans---in an almost bizarre and cosmic case of funny how some things just work out---Dolly has become a realization of her name; a timeless reminder and recognizable friend from the good ole days, a child’s keepsake from which pasts are revisited.
Despite gracing the Opry stage at age thirteen and a few early successes as a songwriter, the start of Parton’s career can almost solely be credited to her work on the Porter Wagoner Show. Averaging over three million viewers, Wagoner’s syndicated television program expanded Parton’s audience and provided a constant amount of exposure for the budding songwriter. Parton and Wagoner would go on to record together and reach respectable success, even as much as being awarded Vocal Group of the Year in 1968 by the Country Music Association. But inevitably Parton would become disheartened by the little attention being paid to her solo career. With 10 solo studio releases from 1967-1972, Dolly was out to prove that behind the face and the voice was a songwriter bent on nothing short of telling her story.
In March 1973 Dolly Parton’s
My Tennessee Mountain Home was released with little commercial success.
My Tennessee Mountain Home---her 11th solo album---marks the first studio album comprised entirely of Parton’s own songs. It’s highly reflective, and paints an almost grandiose portrait of her childhood in rural Tennessee and her struggles of making it in Nashville.
The album starts with Dolly reciting the first letter she wrote home after moving to Nashville. The letter finds Parton homesick and anxious; cognizant of the difficulties ahead. Parton worries that
‘Nashville's not exactly what I’d thought it would be’ and confesses
‘I didn’t realize how hard it was to leave home either until I started to leave and everyone started crying, and I cried too.’
The songs that follow represent Parton’s journey; from her puppy-love memories as a child, to her whimsical hope of returning home and her acceptance of the past for what it is.
Starting with
I remember, Parton gives an introduction to those little things about her childhood she holds so dear. She proudly admits that
‘I remember lots of things that often I recall, but I remember mama and daddy most of all.’ Following this theme throughout the album Parton projects her parents as Cratchit like characters. Hearing songs like
Old Black Kettle and
Daddy’s Working Boots you can almost imagine Parton as a child sprawled on the kitchen floor; eyes beaming, head ****ed back staring at these iconic figures, bursting with pride and appreciation.
My Tennessee Mountain Home and
Back Home are amuck with the same kind of fantasies about returning home and
‘to the smog and smoke and city life, I'm saying so long, I’ve shed a lot of tears through all the years that I’ve been gone.’ Parton’s early difficulties in Nashville had left her unsuspectingly sure that the answer was to return home where
‘life is as peaceful as a baby's sigh.’
But most the compelling turns the record takes are the songs where Parton faces the truth.
I've seen daddy's hands break open and bleed
And I've seen him work till he's stiff as a board
An' I've seen momma layin' in suffer and sickness
In need of a doctor we couldn't afford
Anything at all was more than we had
In the good old days when times were bad
Parton must admit that though love and happiness were present, so too was the reality of poverty.
No amount of money could buy from me
The memories that I have of then
No amount of money could pay me
To go back and live through it again
Parton realizes that she’s left home and for better or worse she’s got to make her way.
Teardrops mingled with the summer rain that was a falling
The day I left my mountain home behind
With a suitcase in my hand and a hope in my heart
I was following a dream I had to find
The album ends with
Down on Music Row. Both critiquing and lamenting over her struggles to be heard.
Down on Music Row is Parton’s final realization and acceptance of her times in Nashville and contains a sly thanks to those who helped her.
But I could feel that change a coming'
And I just kept right on a humming'
With my old' guitar still strumming'
All them songs that I'd wrote
And then Chet and Bob at RCA
Well, they listened to my songs that day
And they both told me that I was on my way
My Tennessee Mountain Home never spawned a chart topping hit nor did it receive much commercial success but for Parton it chronicled a critical part in her journey. Though neither musically or lyrically risky, Parton stepped out with this recording and told her story. It is her first album as a songwriter and plays out as Parton intends. For every bit of watery adoration there is a truth that can be found. Parton details her journey with her own nuances—which at times reek of inflated sentiment---but for her the emotions were real, the pain unbearable at times and throughout it all remained a constant hope and love from a certain Tennessee mountain home.