This Friday's Playlist pays tribute to Dolly Parton, who died on Tuesday at the age of 80, by looking at her extraordinary catalogue from a different angle. Parton was one of the great American songwriters, a country music giant whose work repeatedly crossed into pop and rock, as well as an actress, businesswoman and philanthropist whose influence reached far beyond music.
Dolly Rocks brings together 20 different artists tackling 20 different songs written, recorded or made famous by Parton, with no repeated artists or titles. “Rock” is used fairly broadly here, taking in punk, goth, alternative, roots rock and folk-rock, with a few selections that stray closer to Americana, folk or pop when the interpretation was simply too good to leave out. And rather than filling the playlist with endless versions of the obvious songs, we have dug further into the catalogue, from “Jolene” and “9 to 5” to “Down from Dover,” “My Blue Tears,” “The Grass Is Blue” and plenty more.
