Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics

by Dolly Parton, Dolly Parton (Narrated by)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Dolly Parton is a household name whether you enjoy country music or not, and here she gives us a remarkable window into her career as the most storied female country music artist of all time. This book has everything that fans and curious newcomers could want.

A Recorded Books Audio Original production of songs and stories performed by Dolly herself, Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics goes beyond the glitz, glamour, and rhinestones to the warmth, heart, and soul of a treasured pop-culture icon.

In this exclusive audio performance, the ten-time Grammy Award–winning artist weaves her words with music and memories to give listeners the stories behind the stories of her most cherished songs. And with some 3,000 songs to her credit, Dolly uses her gift for lyrics to connect to people of all genders, generations, and geographies.

Showcasing nearly 100 of her most popular songs, including “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “9 to 5,” and “Coat of Many Colors,” to name a few, this one-of-a-kind audio experience delivers answers to fans’ most burning questions: How close did Dolly come to singing “I Will Always Love You” as a duet with Elvis? How did she become an actress? And exactly who was Jolene?

Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics is a must-have memoir for fans of country music, music history, and (of course!) Dolly herself.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781705000373
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	11/17/2020
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Dolly Parton is the most honored and revered female country singer-songwriter of all time. Achieving 25 RIAA-certified gold, platinum, and multi-platinum awards, she has had 26 songs reach #1 on the Billboard country charts, a record for a female artist. Parton recently became the first country artist honored as Grammy MusiCares Person of the Year given out by NARAS. She has 41 career Top 10 country albums, a record for any artist, and 110 career-charted singles over the past 40 years. In 2014, the RIAA recognized her impact on recorded music with a plaque commemorating more than 100 million units sold worldwide. Her 2016 #1 album, "Pure & Simple," which topped the Billboard Top Country Albums and Americana/Folk Albums charts and debuted at No. 1 in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia, added to that massive tally. She has garnered ten Grammy Awards and 49 nominations, including the Lifetime Achievement Award and a 2020 win with for KING & COUNTRY for their collaboration on "God Only Knows"; 10 Country Music Association Awards, including Entertainer of the Year; five Academy of Country Music Awards, also including a nod for Entertainer of the Year; four People’s Choice Awards; and three American Music Awards. In 1999, Parton was inducted as a member of the coveted Country Music Hall of Fame. Parton has donated over 130 million books to children around the world with her Imagination Library. Her children's book, Coat of Many Colors, was dedicated to the Library of Congress to honor the Imagination Library's 100 millionth book donation. From her "Coat of Many Colors" while working "9-to-5," no dream is too big and no mountain too high for the country girl who turned the world into her stage.

Robert K. Oermann is a Nashville-based music journalist who is considered the "unofficial historian of Nashville's musical heritage." He has written several books on country music, including Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music, which won the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for music book excellence. He lives with his wife in Nashville, Tennessee.

Editorial Reviews

★ 04/01/2021

This collection of conversations with Dolly Parton both entertains and enlightens. With wit and more than a little wisdom, beloved singer and much-revered songwriter Parton shares the stories, beliefs, and lessons that illuminate her life, her relationships, and the country music industry. Parton believes the story a song tells is its soul; through this framework, she analyzes many of her most popular songs, including "The Coat of Many Colors," "Jolene," and "I Will Always Love You." She also talks about her formative years, her artistic process, the people who have influenced and helped her, and being a woman in a business dominated by men. Ultimately positive and encouraging, this audiobook provides a personal look into the self-assured existence of a woman who stands up for herself and recognizes—even laughs at—her own weaknesses. Parton also talks about her responsibility to herself and others, making a difference, and the appropriate use of power. Much like the exuberant entertainer herself, this audiobook a delight for the ears. Recorded snippets from conversations with an interviewer are interrupted only to offer occasional explanation or to ease the listener into another segment of the book. Listeners will feel like Dolly is talking to them as if they were old friends. VERDICT This is an excellent audiobook sure to thrill fans of Dolly Parton and country music, and readers who love unusual audiobook experiences.—Lisa Youngblood, Harker Heights P.L., TX

Library Journal - Audio

A hefty retrospective on the six-decade career of a country music superstar who tells stories in song. Parton has been mining her East Tennessee roots for crowd-pleasing songs ever since she wrote her first tune, about a corncob doll, at around the age of 6. With Nashville-based music journalist Oermann, she serves up her highest-grade ore in a handsomely produced collection of the lyrics to more than 175 of her songs, some in print for the first time. All songs have brief introductions on topics such as when and how Parton wrote them, and longer pieces show her evolution from ‘a hard-core country artist’ with a ‘girlish soprano tremolo’ to a multifaceted star also at ease with pop, gospel, and bluegrass. Moving chronologically through the artist’s life, the book reveals her abiding passions with thematic juxtapositions of songs, which range from ‘9 to 5’ to the elegiac ballads ‘Jolene’ (her song ‘most performed by others’) and ‘I Will Always Love You’ (‘For what she did with that, I will always love you, Whitney Houston’). Hundreds of color and black-and-white photos of Parton and others display her over-the-top tastes in fashion and wigs faithful to her motto: ‘Leave no rhinestone unturned.’ Parton conceals more than she reveals about her 50-plus-year marriage to the reclusive Carl Dean and whether she’s had affairs (‘Well, I don’t admit or deny anything’). She is frank, however, about professional setbacks. For example, when she was starting out in the industry, every major record company on Nashville’s Music Row turned her down as a vocalist. In the final pages, Parton sounds a poignant note in the lyrics to a song written with Kent Wells and released during the pandemic. The song, ‘When Life Is Good Again,’ is the hymnlike lament of a repentant sinner who vows to change ‘when life is good again.’ A splashy, entertaining guide to the lyrics of one of the most popular musicians of our time. ” —Kirkus Starred Reviews

"...a tome that will keep you entranced for weeks. It is essentially the story of her life, told through the lyrics of her songs. The design is wonderful, replete with photographs, ample white space, descriptive text and song lyrics surrounded by the ephemera related to them...As I read, I could hear her voice as if it were reading the book to me. What a treat!"

— Denton Record-Chronicle (TX)

Holiday Gift Guide Pick

"The coffee table book of the year, this weighty tome is filled to overflowing with personal anecdotes, terrific photos and behind-the-music revelations about Dolly's life, loves, regrets and victories."

— AllMusic

Holiday Gift Pick

" A must-have. You’ll come away with even more appreciation for her — as if that’s possible. "

—Cool Mom Picks

From the Publisher

11/01/2020

Cowritten by music journalist Oermann, this annotated collection of Parton's song lyrics is highlighted by commentary from the artist and photographs from every stage of her career, from her childhood in the Tennessee mountains to the rhinestone-studded glamour of country-music stardom. Though Parton has been the subject of much biographical, critical, and musicological commentary of late, this one stands out for its keen insights from the songwriter herself. Indeed, Songteller is an appropriate title, for Parton is as much a storyteller as she is a musician, and the title has a dual meaning: Parton's songs tell stories, and in this book she tells stories about her songs. Though not a biography in the strictest sense—1994's My Life and Other Unfinished Business is that, though obviously dated—the book is organized biographically as well as thematically, taking the reader from Parton's earliest attempts at lyric-writing to her response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout, it's clear that Parton understands both the sheer power of music and her own considerable gifts as a songwriter, performer, storyteller, and collaborator. And the work is just plain heartening. One could do worse to cue up a Spotify playlist and curl up in a comfortable chair with a mug of tea and this book. VERDICT Heartwarming and insightful in equal measure. For Parton fans.—Genevieve Williams, Pacific Lutheran Univ. Lib., Tacoma

Library Journal

Dolly Parton, humanitarian and performer, brings her perky personality and vocalizations to this highly informal, freewheeling discussion of the roots and derivations of her well-known and not-so-well-known song lyrics. A voice never identified acts a bit like a host filling the interstitial segments between selections, and brief song snippets are also included. Candid stories and memories abound, yet there is something quizzical about the effort as a whole: It seems as if there was an interviewer with her at the time of writing/recording as she directs her comments to a specific person who remains unidentified. She will begin a thought and then rephrase the thought in continuous time. Listeners may want to consider this a live symposium by the beloved songwriter about her 60 years of songwriting. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

★ 2020-08-25
A hefty retrospective on the six-decade career of a country music superstar who tells stories in song.

Parton has been mining her East Tennessee roots for crowd-pleasing songs ever since she wrote her first tune, about a corncob doll, at around the age of 6. With Nashville-based music journalist Oermann, she serves up her highest-grade ore in a handsomely produced collection of the lyrics to more than 175 of her songs, some in print for the first time. All songs have brief introductions on topics such as when and how Parton wrote them, and longer pieces show her evolution from “a hard-core country artist” with a “girlish soprano tremolo” to a multifaceted star also at ease with pop, gospel, and bluegrass. Moving chronologically through the artist’s life, the book reveals her abiding passions with thematic juxtapositions of songs, which range from “9 to 5” to the elegiac ballads “Jolene” (her song “most performed by others”) and “I Will Always Love You” (“For what she did with that, I will always love you, Whitney Houston”). Hundreds of color and black-and-white photos of Parton and others display her over-the-top tastes in fashion and wigs faithful to her motto: “Leave no rhinestone unturned.” Parton conceals more than she reveals about her 50-plus-year marriage to the reclusive Carl Dean and whether she’s had affairs (“Well, I don’t admit or deny anything”). She is frank, however, about professional setbacks. For example, when she was starting out in the industry, every major record company on Nashville’s Music Row turned her down as a vocalist. In the final pages, Parton sounds a poignant note in the lyrics to a song written with Kent Wells and released during the pandemic. The song, “When Life Is Good Again,” is the hymnlike lament of a repentant sinner who vows to change “when life is good again."

A splashy, entertaining guide to the lyrics of one of the most popular musicians of our time.

Kirkus Reviews