July 18: 'Run, Rose, Run' Falls Off 'NYT' Best Sellers, CD Still Charts After 17 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List, Dolly and James Patterson's novel Run, Rose, Run fell out of the top 15 on Friday for the first time since release. The book's companion album holds steady at No. 2 on the July 16 U.S. bluegrass albums chart in its 17th chart week, while overseas it gains two to No. 9 U.K. country albums.
Maine Expands Imagination Library Dolly on Friday addressed the National Governors Association Annual Summer Meeting in Maine with a virtual appearance to announce with Gov. Janet Mills that Maine has become the 13th state to take her Imagination Library early childhood literacy program statewide. Learn more from WABI here.
'OUT' Re-Creates Dolly Cover With Orville Peck For its 30th anniversary, OUT magazine has recreated 10 of its most iconic covers, and gay country artist Orville Peck is on the front this month with his take on Dolly's 1997 haystack cover shoot. Check it out here.
'Born In Bristol' To Premiere July 30 The music documentary Born In Bristol, featuring Dolly and other artists talking about and re-recording songs from the classic 1927 recording sessions in Bristol considered the birth of recorded country music, announced last week that it will premiere on July 30 on Circle All Access and Ditty TV. A trailer for the film was also released here and in the media player below.
July 11: Forbes: Dolly Now The $375 Million Woman Dolly's net worth grew by 7 percent, or $25 million, last year to $375 million, Forbes magazine revealed last week in its new list of the nation's top self-made women. Dolly came in at No. 74 on the tally, which she first joined last year at No. 86 in the first time the publication's economics experts ever published an attempt to estimate her total worth. The original $350 million estimate was that approximately $150 million represented the value of her interest in royalties from her entertainment career, most namely the publishing value of her songwriting catalog, while $200 million was her estimated personal ownership stake in Dollywood and its associated companies and attractions. The new listing didn't break out the $375 million figure by holdings but noted the majority of her wealth is due to the theme park. Read more here. She is the 11th wealthiest female entertainer on the list, coming after Oprah, Rhianna, Madonna, Taylor Swift, Judge Judy, Celine Dion, Beyonce, Reese Weatherspoon, Barbra Streisand, and Ellen DeGeneres.
Reggae Dolly Parties 'Two Doors Down'
Dolly on Friday released a new recording of her classic pop hit "Two Doors Down" in a reggae arrangement with her singing vocals. The track came out as a teaser for the July 22 release of Positive Vibrations: Country Goes Reggae, which pairs established country artists with Jamaican musicians and engineers to perform reggae arrangements of their hits. Others on the project include Jimmie Allen, Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts, Uncle Cracker, and Alabama, among others. Producers the Berman Brothers conceived and created the project, following their previous mash-up collections of pop bands such as Coldplay, Sting, and U2 performing Cuban arrangements and standards artists such as Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin, and Marvin Gaye with Bossa Nova arrangements. Download Dolly's track here and listen on YouTube here or the media player above. This isn't Dolly's first entry into the genre, having previously provided lead vocals to Ladysmith Black Mambazo's reggae cover of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" in 1997 (with Bonnie Raitt on slide guitar) and "Your Kisses Are Charity" with Boy George and Culture Club in 1999.
'NYT,' US, U.K. Chart Updates Dolly and James Patterson's novel Run, Rose, Run loses three to No. 13 on the New York Times hardcover fiction Best Seller List in its 17th week, it was announced Friday. The audio play reading of the book falls six to No. 15 audio fiction in its fourth month. The companion album remains steady at No. 2 bluegrass albums on the July 9 Billboard chart in its 16th week of release, while Ultimate Dolly Parton falls back off the top 50 country albums, down from No. 50. Overseas, Run, Rose, Run gains eight to No. 24 U.K. Americana albums but slides four to No. 11 U.K. country albums, while the British country compilations albums chart sees The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe fall off the top 20, down from No. 12, Emmylou Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 fall off the top 20, down from No. 20, Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 rise five to No. 3, and The Essential Dolly Parton re-enter the top 20 at No. 19.
Dollywood Movie Auditions Updated The auditions for dancers in the East Tennessee area to perform in Dolly's NBC Christmas movie that were cancelled recently will instead be held via video, officials announced last week. Interested dancers should watch this dance combination video here, tape themselves performing it, upload it as an unlisted YouTube account video to an email here by Tuesday (including headshot, resume, and state your name, close up, height, and place of residence). Rehearsals will begin July 27 and filming begins Aug. 8.
Drag Dolly Rides Again On RuPaul Tour Thanks, Theodore, for alerting me that the War On The Catwalk drag tour just started and in the Pittsburgh show The Vivienne performs "Two Doors Down" and "9 To 5" in her winning Dolly look and in addition Kylie Sonique Love performs her tribute song "Do It Like Dolly."
Dolly Accepts NEA Honor, Talks To Governors The National Education Association, the country's largest teacher's union, last week honored Dolly with its highest prize, the Friend of Education Award, in recognition of her contributions to American education, namely her Imagination Library early childhood literacy program, which has distributed nearly 200 million books free to kids since inception. She could not attend in person but sent a videotaped acceptance speech, which you may watch here or in the media player below. And that's not Dolly's only promotion of the project coming up, as she's scheduled to remotely serve as a plenary speaker at the National Governor Association's annual Summer Meeting, happening this week in Maine. On Friday, she is scheduled to meet virtually with all 55 governors of U.S. states and territories to discuss the project, which several governors have led their states in taking statewide in recent years. Read more about the conference from The Boston Heraldhere.
July 5: Dolly's 'Smoky Mt. Christmas Carol' Heads To London
Dolly is getting her second musical on London's equivalent of Broadway, the West End, it was announced last week as a limited engagement of Dolly Parton's Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol will play at Southbank Centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall Dec. 8 to Jan. 8. The musical, with book by David H. Bell, music and lyrics by Dolly, and adaptation by Bell, former Dollywood entertainment director Paul T. Couch, and Curt Wollan, is produced by Fiery Angel Entertainment and Red Tail Entertainment and follows an extended run pre-pandemic on the West End of her previous Broadway show, 9 To 5: The Musical. The new show has workshopped and had regional theatre productions in the U.S. and Canada each of the past few holiday seasons, but this will mark its largest theatre market engagement to date. Transplanting the classic Dickens tale from London to Dolly's native Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee and moving its time up from the 1840s in the first few years of Queen Victoria's reign to the Great Depression era, Scrooge has also been recast into the greedy owner of a mining company who is visited by the famous spirits who change his heart. In a release, Dolly stated: "Bringing our reimagined Charles Dickens classic to London feels like a homecoming. My songs weave the music of my beautiful Smoky Mountains into this timeless Christmas story, and I can't wait for London audiences to hear them as we tell that story, set in a place that is truly special to me."
'New York Times,' U.S., U.K. Chart Updates Dolly and James Patterson's novel Run, Rose, Run loses two to No. 10 on the New York Times hardcover fiction Best Seller List in its 16th week, it was announced Friday, and the companion album remains steady at No. 2 bluegrass albums on the July 2 Billboard chart in its 16th week of release, while Ultimate Dolly Parton re-enters the top 50 country albums at No. 50. Overseas, Run, Rose, Run dips seven to No. 32 U.K. Americana albums and two to No. 7 U.K. country albums, while the British country compilations albums chart sees The Complete Trio Collection Deluxe fall two to No. 12, Emmylou Harris's Original Album Series: Volume 1 slide five to No. 20, Harris' Original Album Series: Volume 2 (featuring one track with Dolly harmony and two tracks with Trio harmony by Dolly and Linda Ronstadt) fall out of the top 20, down from No. 17, and Very Best Of Dolly Parton Vol. 1 hold steady at No. 8.
Dolly's Library Passes 2 Million Enrollees Dolly's Imagination Library early childhood literacy program announced last week that as of June, the program had passed more than 2 million participating children monthly, meaning a book is distributed by the program every 1.4 seconds. Since inception, the project has distributed over 184 million books to children across the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia, and Ireland. Currently, over 2,800 local affiliates operate the program in those countries, sending one free, expert-selected, age-appropriate book monthly to every local child from birth to age 5 whose parents register.
Stampede Debuts New Dolly Song Dolly's Stampede dinner theatre in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., has announced a new performance segment has been added to the show to celebrate its 35th anniversary season complete with a new song written by Dolly just for the added segment. The riders begin on horseback of "wild horses" before soaring into the sky above the arena to the music of Dolly's new original song, "Wild Horses."
Hall Of Fame Looks At Dolly Influences The Rock 'N' Roll Hall Of Fame last week released a new video for this year's inductees looking at each one's influences and those they influenced with their music. Watch Dolly's clip here or in the media player below.
