The final six albums of Dolly Parton’s career epitomized her playfulness, versatility, and desire to experiment.
Those releases include a stripped-down country collection (2016’s Pure & Simple), a children’s album (2017’s I Believe in You), another Christmas album (2020’s A Holly Dolly Christmas), and a companion record to a suspense novel she co-wrote with James Patterson (2022’s Run, Rose, Run). Yes, you read that last one correctly.
By her standards, Dolly Parton was unproductive in the 2000s, releasing just five studio albums.
She followed up her bluegrass trilogy with a pair of albums that approached American politics from two different directions. In 2003, For God and Country was a collection of patriotic songs (some traditional, some original) recorded as a response to the September 11 terror attacks. Two years later, Those Were the Day featured covers of 60s and 70s folk songs, most of them anti-war anthems.
After starting the 90s with the most successful run of her career, Dolly Parton closed out the decade with a string of lower profile albums.
Something Special (1995) was notable for including re-recordings of classic hits ‘Jolene’ and ‘I Will Always Love You,’ which didn’t do any favors to the new material. Treasures (1996) was a covers album on which Dolly tried her hand at songs by Neil Young, Cat Stevens, and Katrina and the Waves, among others.
Slow Dancing with the Moon (1993) was Dolly Parton’s second straight Platinum album, and continued a winning streak that started four years earlier with her return to country music.
It’s funny that I feel like I’ve been aware of (and a fan of) Parton for my entire life, but I never really knew anything about her music. Apart from the handful of hits we all know, her recording career was a mystery.
Stepping through it, it’s a little odd to think of her having the same ups and downs as most recording artists — the same detours into unforgiving genres, the same comebacks. Shouldn’t a legend like Dolly Parton be immune to all of that?
Dolly Parton completed her return to the country music fold with 1991’s Eagle When She Flies, a sturdy, charming album that would have fit neatly alongside her early 70s output.
Fans responded, delivering Dolly her first (non-compilation) Platinum album and giving her what would be her last #1 hit on the Country chart in ‘Rockin’ Years,’ a duet with Ricky Van Shelton. That track was written by Foyd Parton, Dolly’s brother.
