Dolly Parton is back in Melbourne for the first time in 25 years and this show is every bit the entertainment you want it to be.
Dolly Parton - Photo By Ros O'Gorman
Dolly Parton is a true superstar. She gave to the audience for more than two hours last night. I learnt at lot about Dolly. For instance, her mother and father married with mom was 15 and dad was 17. By the time they were 35 and 37, they had 12 kids. “They weren’t catholic. They were just horny hillbillies,” she said.
Dolly talked a lot between songs and her banter was equal to her music. She thanked the crowd for spending their hard earned money on her tickets and said she appreciates the money “because it costs a fortune to look this cheap”. That look, we found out, was based on a lady she admired when she was a little girl but who everyone else referred to as “the town tramp”. “I thought the town tramp was the pretty one and wanted to look just like her when I grew up,” she said.
Musically we were given a sneak preview of some new Dolly music. ‘He’s Everything’ ending the first set, is from the movie ‘Joyful Noise’ starring Dolly Parton and Queen Latifah and coming out next year. It gave Dolly a chance to perform the Queen Latifah rap, which luckily was very short. “You know what you get when you mix Country with Rap. Crap!,” she said.
Melbourne fans last night and again tonight had an added bonus. The shows are being filmed for a live Dolly DVD due next year. There was only one malfunction. The battery in her mic died at one point. Her band filled in and performed two songs while she changed batteries. It turned out the wiring set-up had to be done through her wig so it was a major operation just to change a battery.
Surprise of the night for me was Dolly doing Collective Soul’s ‘Shine’. Her bluegrass version of ‘Stairway To Heaven’ was on one of her recent albums so that wasn’t quite a shock. She said her husband was a huge Led Zeppelin fan. When he heard her version for the first time is only comment was “it sounds more like Stairway To Hell’.
All of the hits were here. ‘Baby I’m Burning’ and ‘Jolene’ were two of the first songs she sang. ‘Here You Come Again’, ‘Islands In The Steam’ and ‘9 To 5’ were packaged back to back at the end of set two. The Dolly penned ‘I Will Always Love You’ was saved for the last song.
Her country classic ‘Coat Of Many Colors’ was also part of the first set. ‘Two Doors Down’ featured in part two.
I should make a special mention of the songs ‘Better Day’, ‘Together You and I’ and ‘Holding Everything’, all from her current album ‘Better Day’. New Dolly stands up well next to old Dolly.
Dolly Parton performs again tonight (November 23) at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
She then plays:
November 25, 26, 27, Brisbane, Entertainment Centre
November 29, Sydney, Allphones Arena
December 1, Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena
