This week's award for creative use of vocabulary goes to one of three gents walking across town together after last night's Dolly Parton show at Radio City Music Hall. "We can keep walking this way with the crowd," said one, "or we can turn left and sort of diaspora away from everyone." All three wore matching powder-blue T-shirts proclaiming their membership in D-CUPS, the Dolly Cultural Understanding and ’Preciation Society.
Parton's fast-paced, two-hour show was everything you would expect from such a consummate professional. Opening with a rowdy "Two Doors Down," she served up old classics ("Jolene," "Coat of Many Colors"), massive hits ("Islands in the Stream," "9 to 5," "I Will Always Love You") and selections from her strong new album, Backwoods Barbie. The title track from that album, she mentioned, was written for a stage musical based on the movie 9 to 5, due to open on Broadway next spring; a sizable contingent of cast and crew members was apparently present.
Parton was in stellar voice, had better moves than most folks half her age, and played solid licks on guitar, fiddle, banjo, harmonica, piano, dulcimer and piano. During a stretch of the second set, most of her backing singers and players took a turn in the spotlight for a solo tune, which in effect allowed Parton to "sit in" with Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, the Everly Brothers, Brenda Lee, Aretha Franklin and the Beatles.
A well-rehearsed stage routine included plenty of room for shtick. Dolly cracked wise on politics ("If we do get a woman in the White House, every 28 days those terrorists better run further into the hills"), her looks ("I want to thank you for spending your hard-earned money on me... And I need the money: It takes a lot of money to look this cheap!") and plastic surgery ("If it's droopin’, saggin’ or baggin’ I'm gonna have it nipped, tucked or sucked!") Naturally she told stories of growing up poor in Eastern Tennessee, the second of 12 children born to her parents before they were 40.
Even if you knew she'd said these same lines countless times before, they were still touching. (Bryant Manning reports the same effect here, in an excerpt from a Time Out Chicago interview that also touches on Parton's appreciation of her huge gay following.) And she spoke with a well-deserved pride about her Imagination Library, a literacy charity she founded in honor of her illiterate parents. Originally a local concern in east Tennessee, the program has now spread throughout the state, the country and now Canada and the U.K. Parton isn't necessarily the first superstar who comes to mind when you think of socially active entertainers—but maybe she should be.
Playlist:
The Magic I.D. - Till My Breath Gives Out (Erstpop)
Graham Lambkin/Jason Lescalleet - The Breadwinner (Erstwhile)
Toshimaru Nakamura/English - One Day (Erstwhile)
Nico Muhly - Mothertongue (Bedroom Community/Brassland)
Death - Scream Bloody Gore (Combat)
Kiss - Creatures of the Night (Mercury)
Klaus Schulze - Irrlicht (Revisited)
Terry Riley - The Last Camel in Paris: Théâtre Edouard VII, Paris, 10 November 1978 (Elision Fields)
Bill Frisell - History, Mystery (Nonesuch, due May 13)
Charles Ives - Symphony No. 2; The Gong on the Hook and Ladder; Tone Roads No. 1; Hymn: Largo Cantabile; Hallowe'en; Central Park in the Dark; The Unanswered Question - New York Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein (Deutsche Grammophon)
Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 5 - Vienna Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein (Deutsche Grammophon)
Lee Hoiby - This Is the Rill Speaking - Eastman Opera Theatre/Benton Hess (Albany)
Yoshi Wada - The Appointed Cloud (EM)
Michael Gandolfi - Points of Departure; Themes from a Midsummer Night; Y2K Compliant - Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose (BMOP Sound)
Roy Harris - Symphony No. 3; Randall Thompson - Symphony No. 2; David Diamond - Symphony No. 4 - New York Philharmonic/Leonard Bernstein (Sony Classical)
Luigi Cherubini - Medea - Maria Callas, Maria Luisa Nache, Fedora Barbieri, Gino Penno, Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro La Scala, Milan/Leonard Bernstein (EMI Classics)
Alex Shapiro - Notes from the Kelp (Innova)
Yes - 90125 (Elektra/Rhino); Big Generator (Atco)
Fish - 13th Star (Chocolate Frog)
Made Out of Babies - The Spoiler (The End, due June 24)
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