Feb. 27:
Store Opening Gains Coverage
Several media outlets on Friday noted Dolly's upcoming March 12 ribbon cutting of her Nashville store, Dolly Parton's Trinkets & Treasures, following issuance of a press release on the event by her publicist late Thursday. As was previously reported here and elsewhere, she will appear at the Second Avenue store for the event, although the exact time of the ribbon cutting that day has not been announced. In the release, Dolly explained: "When I was growing up in the backwoods of the Smoky Mountains, any trinket was a treasure to me. The mail order catalog was my wish book.  I wished I could have everything I saw.  Those childhood memories inspired my new Trinkets and Treasures store.  Come on in and wish and dream…and I will make them come true." As you may recall, her record label operated three recent contests to select 15 lucky fans who will get to meet her at the event, which suggests there won't be any public autograph sessions or other such direct interaction with fans at the event.

'9 To 5' Heading To Indy
Yet another city on the tour of Dolly's 9 To 5: The Musical has been revealed: Indianapolis, Ind. The show will play the city's Clowes Memorial Hall Jan. 11-16, Broadway World reported here and The Indianapolis Star reported here Friday.

White Loves Dolly
Golden Gal Betty White is a Dolly fan. Turns out she loves country music, especially Dolly, telling AOL's The Boot here that "9 To 5" is one of her favorites and adding: "I like Dolly's whole approach to life with ongoing and uplifting songs. I never met Dolly but everything I ever heard about her she was a great gal to know and you could kind of get it in her music and her voice and her approach to lyrics."

Catch Interview Repeat
CNN this week re-posted a Q&A with Dolly that originally became available online after it aired overseas following an airing on CNN International in November. Watch it here.

West Virginia Library Celebrated
West Virginia on Thursday was celebrating the continued expansion of Dolly's Imagination Library literacy program, which continues to add county after county to its statewide project. Read about it in New Cumberland from The Review here and Weirton from The Weirton Times here.

Feb. 26:
Chart Updates Come Out
Dolly-related projects see some declines on the March 6 Billboard charts that came out Thursday. Steve Martin's The Crow - New Songs for the 5-String Banjo, with its Dolly and Vince Gill collaboration, dips two to No. 4 bluegrass albums in its 53rd chart week. The soundtrack to the Drew Barrymore-directed film Whip It, featuring Dolly's "Jolene," slips one to No. 25 on the 25-position soundtrack chart. Brad Paisley's Time Well Wasted, which includes Dolly on "When I Get Where I'm Going," falls back out of the top 25 country catalog albums list, down from last week's re-entry at No. 16. Lady Antebellum's Need You Now holds steady at No. 1 country and No. 2 pop in its fourth week with 144,000 copies sold, while Josh Turner's Haywire holds on at No. 2 country albums and falls four to No. 9 pop with 33,000 copies moved in its second week.

Dolly Marriage Lauded
Officials in Ringgold, Ga., are celebrating the 43-year marriage of Dolly and Carl Dean, who were wed at the Ringgold Wedding Chapel. Their original marriage license, on loan from the local court, and an enlarged print of their wedding day photo taken by Dolly's mother are on display at the Ringgold Depot. Read more from The Walker Messenger here.

Get Signed Guitar
A guitar autographed by Dolly will be available for bids this weekend at the LGBT advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign's Equality Dinner in Nashville, Out & About reports here. The event takes place at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel Saturday night.

Park Employee Falls
A Dollywood employee fell from the Tennessee Tornado roller coaster while painting the loading platform this week, taken to the hospital with injuries from the 25-foot fall, according to The Tennessean here.

Another Library Chapter Begins
The Pascagoula, Miss., chapter of Dolly's Imagination Library kicked off this week. Coverage included The Sun Herald in Biloxi here.

Feb. 24:
Dolly App Snags Coverage
The new Dolly iPhone app released Monday (download from iTunes here), also available for Android phones, got a good bit of notice on Tuesday with the issuance of a press release from app developer Mobile Roadie, which noted that Madonna and Ashton Kutcher also launched apps this week on the two phone systems through their company, with Taylor Swift's coming soon. In the release, available in full from MarketWire here, Dolly noted: "My first phone was two tin cans tied together with string, and it worked pretty good. But now you can watch TV, download music and surf the web from your phone. Sure beats smoke signals. I never thought in my lifetime, that you'd be able to watch movies, read books and listen to music from a phone, but I guess the technology of tomorrow is here today. And to think that folks will be able to watch my Video Diaries and listen to my music on the go is just fantastic. I think it's great that Mobile Roadie has made it so simple for my fans to keep up with everything I got going on, and who knows, I may even learn how to use it." Coverage included Read Write Web here and Billboard here.

'9 To 5' In Twin Cities
Dolly's 9 To 5: The Musical tour will roll into the Ordway Center July 12-24, 2011, The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune reported here Tuesday night.

Read Overseas Dolly
The full Dolly interview with Britain's The Sun newspaper, referenced in several other copied reports about her comments on Susan Boyle, celebrity marriages and a few other topics, was posted over the weekend on the newspaper's website. Check it out here.

No Dolly In New DVD
Although a handful of online resources list her as a cast member making a cameo with the character name Suzie Valentine, including the film's Wikipedia page and a news report here, Dolly does NOT appear in the movie Women In Trouble that was released on DVD last week.

Facebook News
There's a new fan-operated page for Dolly fans on Facebook here. While you're over there, befriend your own Dollymania webmaster here, or check out the official page operated by Dolly's record label on her behalf here.

Feb. 23:
There's An App For That!
Owners of iPhones, iPod Touches and the upcoming iPad can now get a dose of Dolly on their screens, as her official record label website, DollyPartonMusic.net, has just released an iTunes application to tie into the website. The app features streaming music from her recent CDs, YouTube content from her video blogs, embedded Twitter stream, the website's retail store and more. It costs 99 cents. Download it here!

'London' Gone Overseas
It just lasted three weeks on the chart overseas, but that was much better than it fared in the U.S., as Dolly: Live From London this week drops off the top 100 pop albums in the U.K., down from No. 76 last week. Stateside, it didn't even approach the top 100, logging just one week at No. 195 pop and peaking at No. 36 country, her career worst non-holiday/non-compilation U.S. country chart performance, versus its one week at No. 1 country in Great Britain, where it peaked at No. 33 pop to become her seventh top 40 pop album there over the past 10 years.

Dolly On Another Best Of List
A critic for blog The Huffington Post this week came out with his list of the 100 best albums of the past decade, and there are several Dolly connections. Dolly herself shows up at No. 22 of the 2000s with her 2001 collection Little Sparrow. She also appears as a songwriter for "I'm A Drifter" on No. 3 Johnny Cash Unearthed and "Little Sparrow" on No. 51 Bettye LaVette's I've Got My Own Hell To Raise. Then she returns as both songwriter and singer with the Grammy-nominated duet on "Tomorrow Is Forever" from No. 67 Solomon Burke's Nashville. Read the full list here.

Music Of Olympic Proportions
Thanks to several readers who alerted me to a Dolly appearance at the Olympics. Well, she wasn't there in person, but her music was. In Monday night's performances at the ice skating competition French skaters Nathalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat took home a seventh-place finish dancing to "Thank God I'm A Country Boy" as performed by Roy Rivers and Dolly from Rivers' 2004 album of that name (available here). Check out a note about the performance from CMT.com here.

Block Talks To British Press
Interviewed with the London version of Broadway World, 9 To 5: The Musical star Stephanie J. Block praised Dolly and said she was stumped why the show closed so early on Broadway. Read it here.

Feb. 22:
Gone Again Down Under
Sony's 2007 compilation The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Vol. 1 falls back off of this week's Australian country albums top 20, down from re-entering last week at No. 19 to mark a 48th chart week Down Under.

Feb. 20:
Library Milestone Celebrated
Dolly's Imagination Library literacy program celebrated a milestone recently with its 15th anniversary of operating in Sevier County, Tenn., and Dolly recently met with the first child who received a book from her program, Lydia Cantrell, who obviously is now 15 years old! The program posted a photo of the meeting on its Facebook page this week here, noting that Cantrell was recently interviewed about the program for a British newspaper. Over the past 10 years since the program expanded past just Sevier County, it has reached into more than 1,100 communities across the U.S., Canada and the U.K., providing one free, age-appropriate, expert-selected book every month to children birth to age 5, a total of more than 6 million books a year.

GAC Re-Running Dolly
If you missed Dolly's January interview on the Great American Country (GAC) program Master Series, the network announced Friday it will repeat the broadcast at 8 p.m. Wednesday with additional re-runs at midnight and noon Thursday and again at 5 p.m. next Sunday.

Feb. 19:
U.S. Charts Released
The Feb. 27 Billboard charts released Thursday see little change. Steve Martin's The Crow - New Songs for the 5-String Banjo, featuring a Dolly and Vince Gill duet, holds steady at No. 2 bluegrass albums in its 52nd chart week. The soundtrack to the Drew Barrymore-directed film Whip It, which includes "Jolene," falls four to No. 24 on the soundtrack chart. Brad Paisley's Time Well Wasted, with Dolly on "When I Get Where I'm Going," re-enters the top 25 country catalog albums list at No. 16. Lady Antebellum's Need You Now holds steady at No. 1 country but inches down one to No. 2 pop in its third week with 208,000 copies sold, while Josh Turner's Haywire debuts at No. 2 country albums and No. 5 pop with 85,000 copies moved in its first week.

New Attraction At Stampede
Dolly's Branson, Mo., Dixie Stampede adds a Gold Rush Jubilee segment next Friday, it was announced. "At my Dixie Stampede, we make every part of your visit fun and exciting, from the Carriage Room Pre-show right through the big dinner spectacular and grand patriotic finale," Dolly said in a press release available from The Greater Tulsa Reporter here.  "This year I'd like to invite you to join the gold rush as folks head west for my new 'Gold Rush Jubilee!'" The scene is set by Prospector Skeeter, who discovers gold, prompting cowboys to enter on horseback in search of treasure and a dance hall stage to descend from the ceiling.

Feb. 17:
Another Criticizes '9 To 5' Closing
Another person involved with Dolly's 9 To 5: The Musical says it "got a bad rap" with critics and closed too early. Broadway veteran Kevin Kern, who performed in the Los Angeles preview run of the show before it headed to New York, said "I thought it was such a great show. I don't think the critics gave it a chance," adding that he believes the New York critics saw Dolly and the other Great White Way novices involved in the show as "'interlopers' on their 'turf.'" Read more in an interview with Broadway World here.

Feb. 16:
'London' Still In Top 100
Dolly: Live From London just barely missed remaining in the top three-quarters of the British pop albums charts, it was revealed Monday when the full top 100 tally was released. The title slips 32 places this week to register at No. 76 pop in its third week in the U.K., holding on as the second-biggest-selling country title of the week behind Taylor Swift's Fearless.

'Dolly' Makes Another List
It may be a little late into the new year to continue putting out "best of" columns, but that didn't stop The Huffington Post, which listed the four-CD Dolly boxed set from Sony as one of the five best boxed sets of 2009 here on Monday.

Cook Chats Up Dolly
Most folks who watch any CMT at all know how much host Katie Cook loves Dolly, and she gushes over her some more in an interview with Country Stars Central available here.

Feb. 15:
Hospital Tour Shots Available
Special thanks to photographer Curtis Hilbun and The LeConte Medical Center in Sevierville, Tenn., for sharing some great shots of Dolly from Friday's tour of the hospital's new Dolly Parton Center for Women's Services which opens to the public on Monday, such as the image at left. Check out a selection in a gallery posted here! Image at left is courtesy Curtis Hilbun. Used with permission.

Heart Day Wishes From Dolly

Pickler's '9 To 5' Highlighted

Overseas Chart Updates
After just two weeks in the top 50 on the U.K. pop charts, one of those weeks being the country's top-selling country CD, Dolly: Live From London has tumbled off the top 75 pop albums across the pond, down from No. 44. We'll learn Monday whether it's managed to stay in the lower quarter of the top 100 or if it's gone completely. The CD and DVD set had peaked at its No. 33 pop debut there. On the other side of the globe, her 2007 compilation The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Vol. 1 re-enters this week's Australian country albums top 20 at No. 19 to mark a 48th chart week Down Under.

Feb. 13:
Dolly Sees Women's Center Firsthand

Contest Ends Early
Someone apparently jumped the gun over at Dolly's official record label website, DollyPartonMusic.net, and ended the meet-and-greet contest for her ceremonial grand opening next month at her Nashville retail store at least half a day early. The 10 randomly-selected winners were notified Thursday evening of the result of the contest and they were publicly announced a few hours thereafter, even though the published contest rules (which were still viewable on the site as of Friday night) said that entries would be accepted until noon Friday afternoon and the winners announced Friday night. No reason was published for ending the contest early.

Working '9 To 5' In Dayton
Another city in the 9 To 5: The Musical tour has been revealed – and this is one that your webmaster will be taking in, since it's just up the road a few miles from me :) The show will play the Schuster Center in Dayton, Ohio, Feb. 1-6 next year as part of the Victoria Theatre Association's 2010-2011 season. Check out coverage from WDTN here, The Dayton Daily News here and Broadway World here.

Feb. 12:
'Whorehouse' Getting A Remake
The classic 1982 Dolly film The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas could be coming back to a theatre near you, Variety reported here Thursday. Although it likely would not include Dolly herself, Universal Pictures plans to shoot a new musical version of the movie, having contracted with the writers for Legally Blonde to pen the updated script and the producers of the Twilight series to produce it. The article noted that the studio won't comment on what music will be used in the new picture – whether it will feature the original score from the Broadway musical, the film score that mixed songs from the stage version with original music composed by Dolly, or a new score from a new composer.

Chart Updates
The Feb. 20 Billboard charts released Thursday stay pretty much the same. Steve Martin's The Crow - New Songs for the 5-String Banjo, with its Dolly and Vince Gill collaboration, holds steady at No. 2 bluegrass albums in its 51st chart week. The soundtrack to the Drew Barrymore-directed film Whip It dips three to No. 20 on the soundtrack chart. Lady Antebellum's Need You Now holds steady at No. 1 pop and country in its second week, while Taylor Swift's Fearless remains at No. 2 country albums and rises six to No. 7 pop in its 65th week

Hometown Paper Covers Dolly
The Mountain Press in Sevierville, Tenn., recently ran two stories with Dolly connections. The first is about her appearance in an upcoming tourism commercial for the city, her hometown. Read it here. The second profiles the history of Dollywood in honor of the park's 25th anniversary season. See that here.

Dance Album Remembered
The Knoxville News Sentinel used the recent revelation that Dolly was considering an album with Jack White to remind fans that she's put together a dance CD that has yet to be released. Check out the column from Terry Morrow here.

Test Your Knowledge
Check out a cool Dolly quiz here created by a fan. Thanks, Marcos!

Feb. 10:
Get Those E-Mails In To Meet Dolly
For those who haven't sent in their entries yet for chances at 10 meet-and-greet passes with Dolly when she's in Nashville next month to celebrate her retail store, you only have a couple more days to do so. The winners of the five passes given out via the Twitter portion of the contest on Friday were announced this week on her official record label website, DollyPartonMusic.net. Members of the website's online fan club, the Dollyites, may send an e-mail to its general mailbox to enter for one of the five fan club passes remaining, and members of the website's online street team, the Big Wigs, may recruit a new member and send an e-mail with the new member's name to enter for a chance at five other passes. E-mails are due by noon Friday, and winners will be announced by 5 p.m. that day. Dolly will appear at the Second Avenue store on March 12.

'Undercover' Stays Under 'Dolly'
Did you know that Dolly holds the record for the biggest television series debut in at least the past 23 years? CBS this week bragged that its series premiere of the new reality show Undercover Boss following the Super Bowl attracted an audience of 38.6 million viewers, the most for the debut episode of a new series since Dolly's first episode of Dolly attracted 39.47 million on Sept. 27, 1987. Read more here.

Lovin' That 'London'
Another review of Dolly: Live From London hit the web Tuesday, this time from British site In The News. Read it here.

New Library Chapter Starts
Dolly's Imagination Library is headed to Albert County, N.B., up north in Canada. Check out the story from The Times & Transcript here.

Feb. 8:
Down In U.K., Gone Down Under
After one week as the No. 1 country album in Great Britain, Dolly: Live From London slips one behind Taylor Swift's Fearless to the No. 2 country spot in the U.K., the charts released Sunday night revealed. The album also dips 11 to No. 44 pop overseas. Elsewhere, The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Vol. 1, the 2007 Sony's foreign compilation, falls back off the top 20 Australian country albums, down from No. 20 in its 47th chart week there.

Meet-And-Greet In 'CW'
I'm told there's a shot of Dolly meeting fan Courtney Brown backstage at her 2008 Green Bay, Wisc., show in the current issue of Country Weekly. Thanks, Courtney!

Feb. 6:
Dolly Talks Of Offers From Rock Producers
Many Dolly fans have longed for her to turn over the producing reigns on an album or two to either Rick Rubin (architect of Johnny Cash's American series) or Jack White ("Jolene" cover artist who produced a Grammy-winner for Loretta Lynn), and she hasn't ruled out the possibility. According to an interview with AOL Music U.K. to promote her Dolly: Live From London, she said she had been approached to do just that – although she seemed confused as to whether it was Rubin or White, or both. "I'm certainly not opposed to doing that," she noted, "it's just I usually have a set notion of where I'm headed with a certain project and what I want to get out of it. But Lord only knows what I might do when I get a chance to sit down and think about it again." Read the full interview here. In related news, the CD/DVD set is reviewed by Blog Critics here.

Feb. 5:
Dolly To Honor Kenny In Concert
Kenny Rogers and Dolly, who have a new duet out together as a single, will reunite on stage in April as Dolly takes part in a special concert to honor Rogers' 50th anniversary in the entertainment world that is being taped for a television special. Other preliminary guests announced on Thursday for the show include Lionel Richie, Alison Krauss, Wynonna and the Oak Ridge Boys. The event takes place April 10 at the MGM Grand in Foxwoods, Conn., and tickets will go on sale next Thursday at 9 a.m. online at www.mgmatfoxwoods.com, via phone at 1-866-646-0609 or in person at the casino theatre box office. The identity of the network to air the resulting special will be announced in the future. Learn more from Rogers' official website here. Image of Kenny & Dolly at a 2005 CMT special is courtesy CMT/PR Newswire. Used with permission.

TV Show Seeks Fighting Fans
Have a spouse who just can't take your pilgrimages to Dollywood? Has he or she threatened to toss your Dolly doll collection into the garage? Well, television producers would love to have some fans whose better halves would rather not have to compete with Dolly for your affection. If this sounds familiar to what goes on in your house, e-mail them here to share your story and be considered for an upcoming program.

Little Changes On Charts
Dolly-related releases don't see much impact on the Feb. 13 Billboard charts released Thursday. Steve Martin's The Crow - New Songs for the 5-String Banjo, featuring a Dolly and Vince Gill collaboration, remains steady at No. 2 bluegrass albums in its 50th chart week. The soundtrack to the Drew Barrymore-directed film Whip It, on which she chose to include Dolly's "Jolene," re-enters the soundtrack chart at No. 17 the week of the movie's DVD release. Brad Paisley's Time Well Wasted, with Dolly on "When I Get Where I'm Going," falls back out of the Canadian top 50 country albums, down from No. 45. Lady Antebellum sees its Need You Now debut at No. 1 pop and country with 481,000 units moved in its first week, while Taylor Swift's Fearless loses one to No. 2 country albums and three to No. 13 pop in its 64th week

Hug A Dolly Bear
Bid on a Dolly-autographed stuffed bear symbolizing her first Broadway outing as the Tony-nominated composer and lyricist of 9 To 5: The Musical in the annual auction to benefit the charity Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. Bids will be accepted here through Feb. 13.

Combo Set Moved To Feb. 16
The three-disc Original Album Classic CD release combining the Dolly titles Eagle When She Flies, Slow Dancing With The Moon and White Limozeen previously mentioned here will now hit stores in the U.K. on Feb. 16 and will be available in the U.S. as an import from Amazon.com here.

More 'London' Press
Check out a Dolly interview with London's The Daily Mail here to promote her CD/DVD Dolly: Live From London.

Another W.V. County Adopts Library
Expansion of Dolly's Imagination Library into Hancock County, W.V., is covered in The Review here. Ed. Note: The original report here said Hancock County, Ohio, because the newspaper that reported it is located in Ohio, alebit on the state line, but the story was actually about a neighboring county in West Virginia.

Feb. 4:
Dolly's Park Launches New Site
Check out the spiffy new website for Dollywood, which includes sections for the adjacent Splash Country water park and the recently-added Dollywood Vacations cabin rentals. The site even features your own account registration and comments sections. Plus, thanks to Chris for pointing out coverage of this year's new ride addition, Adventure Mountain, from WJHL here.

Feb. 3:
Win A Meeting With Dolly
Very few details on Dolly's March 12 appearance in Nashville to officially open her retail store on Second Avenue have been released, but her official record label website, DollyPartonMusic.net, on Tuesday revealed that 15 lucky fans will get to meet her at the event. Unfortunately, this suggests that she won't be one-on-one with any other fans that day, such as if she were to set up a CD signing that many fans have written to me in recent weeks hoping she would do, which means most likely she will only appear on a stage for remarks or a ribbon cutting or similar brief event at least some distance from the general public. However, three separate contests will be running to choose the meet-and-greet winners. Members of the website's Dollyites online fan club may send an e-mail through Feb. 12 to enter for a chance at one out of five of the passes, members of the website's Big Wigs street team must recruit a new Big Wigs member and send an e-mail through Feb. 12 with the new user's username to enter for one of the next five, and people who are not members of either of those must watch for a message at noon Friday to be posted on the Twitter account that the record label runs for her here and they'll have 12 hours to re-Tweet the message to their own followers to enter the contest. Fans who are members of both groups may enter all three contests to increase their chances of winning. Further details of all three contests are on the label's website.

Feb. 1:
'London' Hits No. 1 In England
Dolly has the top country album this week in the U.K. as her Dolly: Live From London also debuts at No. 33 pop overseas, making one of her career worst-performing albums in the U.S. one of her best-performing in Great Britain, where the concert was recorded. In the U.S., the release had topped out at just No. 36 country, ranking as her worst-charted non-holiday new recording ever, and No. 195 pop. Sony released and promoted the album in the U.K. The label also released its four-CD Dolly boxed set there on the same day, but it did not debut in the top 75 pop albums.

'9 To 5' Loses Grammy
Dolly's 45th Grammy nomination, her first for her own Dolly Records label, didn't bring home another gramophone for her trophy case, as the new version of West Side Story on Sunday beat out her 9 To 5: The Musical for Best Musical Show Album. Dolly had been nominated as the show's musical composer and lyricist as well as one of the producers of the cast album. She had shared the nomination with fellow album producer Stephen Oremus and album co-producer Alex Lacamoire. Had she won, it would have been her eighth career Grammy.

Tampa Gets Show
In related news, the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa is the third location to announce that the show's national tour will stop there in its 2010-2011 season. The musical is scheduled to be performed in the Florida city Oct. 19-24. Other known engagements (as the full tour schedule has yet to be released) are the tour kick-off Sept. 21-26 in Nashville followed by Sept. 28-Oct. 3 in Atlanta, so there likely will be two other multi-night performances in other cities between Atlanta and Tampa.

Hanging On Down Under
Britain's not the only place with some Dolly on the tally, as The Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Vol. 1, Sony's 2007 overseas compilation CD, remains steady at No. 20 on the Australian country albums chart in its 47th chart week there.

Dollywood Notes
Thanks to a Dollywood fan for passing along that the park just launched its first official Facebook page here and that its Thunderhead roller coaster has made a new list of the top 10 wooden coasters in the country. The Los Angeles Times polled group of coaster experts and based on their votes the coaster ranked ninth overall here, although one of the experts in the group chose it as his No. 1 pick. The paper is also taking reader votes here, and as of press time Sunday night it ranked third in the public poll.

Dolly On The BBC
Thanks to Gerard for alerting me to a BBC Radio2 interview with Dolly on Michael Ball's Sunday Brunch. She covers many topics starting just over one hour and 16 minutes into the program (following "I Can't Fight This Feeling" from the cast of my favorite show, Glee), available online for six days here. Apparently, a longer excerpt from the interview will air on Tuesday, March 2.

Latest Library News
Dolly's Imagination Library in Louisiana was profiled recently in The Opelousas Daily World. Check out the coverage here. And several more communities in Alaska are getting the program, according to a weekend report from The Juneau Empire here.