Sugar Hill Records CD-3900

Songs: Travelin’ Prayer, Cash On The Barrelhead, A Few Old Memories, I’m Gonna Sleep With One Eye Open, Steady As The Rain, I Still Miss Someone, Endless Stream Of Tears, Silver Dagger, Train Train, I Wonder Where You Are Tonight, Will He Be Waiting For Me, The Grass Is Blue, I Am Ready

Personnel: Dolly Parton (vocals); Jerry Douglas (dobro); Sam Bush (mandolin/vocals); Stuart Duncan (fiddle; Bryan Sutton (guitar); Jim Mills (banjo); Barry Bales (bass and vocals) Steve Buckingham (guitar); Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Claire Lynch, Keith Little, Patty Loveless, Rhonda Vincent, Darrin Vincent, Alan O’Bryant, Louis Nunley (harmony vocals)

By Larry Carlin

THE BLUEGRASS WORLD IS A-BUZZ over the release of the new recording The Grass Is Blue by long-time country singer Dolly Parton. This is not the first time that a country or rock artist ventured into bluegrass. Emmylou Harris has been here, there are the Will The Circle Be Unbroken recordings, Steve Earl did a recording with the Del McCoury Band this year, and “Bluegrass Boy” Peter Rowan has been bending the boundaries of bluegrass for over three decades now. So Dolly’s bluegrass gamble should not have stalwarts manning the barricades.

There is no need to go into depth about Dolly Parton. Everyone knows who she is. She wears coats of many colors. The diminutive flaxen-wigged dynamo has been a successful country singer for over 30 years, she has crossed over onto the pop charts from time to time, and she has also starred in somemovies. She is a producer and a songwriter, and she even has her own theme park in Tennessee called Dollywood. Over the years she has done some bluegrass in her shows and on certain albums, so her doing an entire bluegrass recording is not as radical as some may think.

If some other country singer decided to do a bluegrass album but did not know where to start they could not have done much better in assembling a stellar cast of the bluegrass elite. Sam Bush mans the mandolin, Jerry Douglas does the dobro, 1999 IBMA Banjo Player of the Year Jim Mills (from Ricky Skaggs’ band) picks the banjo, hot guitarist Bryan Sutton (late of Skaggs’ band) strums the guitar, “Fiddlin’” Stuart Duncan (of the Nashville Bluegrass Band) saws the fiddle, and Barry Bales of Alison Krauss’ band beats the bass. And the cast of harmony singers (Alison Krauss, Rhonda Vincent, and Claire Lynch, to name a few (are some of the bright shining stars in the bluegrass realm.

On The Grass Is Blue the musicianship is first rate, and there is a good mix of old and new material. Parton wrote four of the songs herself. The first song is a very non-bluegrass tune by pop singer Billy Joel called Travelin’ Prayer, yet it is obvious on this cut that Dolly can still belt it out when she wants to. She then scores major points right away by covering the Louvin Brothers’ classic Cash On the Barrelhead, followed by Hazel Dickens’ heartrending A Few Old Memories. She pays homage to bluegrass god Lester Flatt by singing his whimsical I’m Gonna Sleep With One Eye Open. Sandwiched between two tearful original songs (lots of tears falling like rain) is a beautiful rendition of the Cash brothers’ standard I Still Miss Someone. Silver Dagger is a traditional song that Joan Baez recorded in her early years, and it is an up-tempo version of the age-old tribulation where a family tries to prevent the romance of one of their children. The bluegrass train song quota is met with the song Train, Train, and that is followed by the timeless I Wonder Where You Are Tonight, which has been recorded by many bluegrass greats such as Bill Monroe, The Bluegrass Cardinals and Mac Wiseman. The next two songs were written by Dolly, including the title cut. And she finishes the CD with an a capella version of the gospel song I Am Ready, written by her sister Rachel Parton Dennison.

Now, some questions and answers:

• Is it bluegrass? Sure sounds like it.
• Will it sell? Yep.
• Does it help the genre of bluegrass overall? Anytime Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas are on The Tonight Show (USA) is a boon to bluegrass.
• Is it great that Hazel Dickens has a song covered on such a high-profile recording? You betcha.
• Will there be a Dolly bluegrass band coming to your local bluegrass fest anytime soon? Doubtful.
• Are there other real bluegrass singers out there more deserving of the recognition that this CD will garner? Of course.
• Will such happen as a result of The Grass Is Blue? Could very well be.
• Is there a fear now that other old-time country artists squeezed out by the so-called “young country/hat guy” format will now record bluegrass CDs? Hope not, but may happen.
• Is this the beginning of the end of bluegrass as we know/knew it? Hardly.

Dolly Parton is bringing mainstream media coverage to bluegrass. She may become the female equivalent to Ricky Skaggs (who left country music to play bluegrass for good) or she may move on to rap or metal music next. In the meantime, give her a listen and decide for yourself. The traditionalists are seeing red, while others hope to see green in the form of sales of other bluegrass CDs at the cash register. Love Dolly or envy her, as long as The Grass Is Blue is all that really matters.

Larry Carlin, Sausalito, Nr. San Francisco, USA |  Write to | Web site |

1st Jan 2000