3 Times Dolly Parton Got Experimental With Her Music (And Succeeded Flawlessly)

Make no mistake, Dolly Parton will always be the Queen of Country. However, that doesn’t mean we’re going to throw a fit if she decides to branch out once in a while. Just like any woman in the music industry, Dolly Parton has had to reinvent herself time and time again. Here are some of our favorite Dolly eras, where she stepped outside of the country music box. Per usual, she continues to show everyone that there’s nothing Dolly can’t do.

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Releasing the ‘Rockstar’ Album

In 2022, Dolly Parton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which she didn’t feel she deserved. In an effort to “earn her place”, she told CMT, she decided to record a rock and roll album. The project ended up featuring rock artists like Sting, Steven Tyler, and even Lynyrd Skynyrd, on new Dollified versions of their own hits. It also features a version of “Wrecking Ball” that includes vocals from both Dolly and Miley Cyrus. That one’s a personal favorite of mine.

According to Dolly, what makes someone a rockstar doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with genre. She said, “A rockstar is really someone that just lets it all out, lets it all go, feels all the rhythm, just does it with soul and with heart,” and we couldn’t agree more.

Her “Here You Come Again” Pop Crossover

Not only was “Here You Come Again” Dolly Parton’s first pop crossover hit, but it was also a song that she did not write herself, a rarity for the songstress. However, let’s not get it twisted. Just because she wanted to try something new didn’t mean Dolly was leaving country music in the dust. According to Gary Klein, who produced the Here You Come Again album, Parton was insistent on adding steel guitar. “She wanted people to be able to hear the steel guitar, so if someone said it isn’t country, she could say it and prove it,” he explains to The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits. “She was so relieved. It was like her life sentence was reprieved.”

Her Bluegrass Era

If you’re a country singer who’s looking for a little experimentation, you’d think that the natural transition genre-wise would be to go either folk or bluegrass. That’s why, in 1999, it really should have been no surprise when Dolly Parton released a bluegrass album. The project, titled The Grass Is Blue, even earned Parton a Grammy! Similar to her Rockstar album, it included renditions of classic hits with iconic bluegrass musicians.

In a 1999 interview with Billboard, the singer shared, “I’ve always loved bluegrass, having grown up in and around mountain music and bluegrass, so I chose some songs I’ve been singing all my life.”

The project also features original songs like “Endless Stream of Tears” and the title track, and bluegrass versions of other Dolly tracks.

Photo by: Bridget BENNETT / AFP