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.
Getting back to the albums of 1995, here’s the first one that struck me as something I wish I’d had in my life over the last 30 years.
Wrecking Ball is Emmylou Harris’ 18th studio album and the only one I’ve heard all the way through. I’m more familiar with the country legend through her guest appearances in the work of other artists (she is a particularly welcome presence on Elvis Costello’s The Delivery Man album).
Today’s Random Weekend selection, like so many of them, is a reminder that I haven’t listened to this artist in too long.
In this case it’s Bruce Springsteen, whose 2012 album Wrecking Ball continued a strong run of material that started in the late 2000s. As with its predecessors, Magic and Working On a Dream, I really enjoyed this album upon its release but stopped listening after awhile.
Here’s a sweet, sexy little track from Bruce Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball, made even more sexy by its accompanying video, which features a lingerie-clad model working a stripper pole.
I don’t know if this is the official video or some expertly crafted fan video. It does feature Springsteen himself toward the end. Quality entertainment.
Ricky Manning turned Pharrell and Blake’s chairs in the Blind Auditions, performing John Newman’s ‘Love Me Again.’ I have no recollection of this event.
He made it through the Battle Rounds by out-performing Brittany Butler on ‘On Broadway.’ No memory of that one, either.
