Image by Michael Boyd
Dolly Parton lives up to her legacy in Chicago
May 9, 2008, at the Chicago Theater
By Nona Willis Aronowitz
Published: May 11th, 2008 | 7:00pm
There’s always been something about Dolly Parton, something about her cartoonish sass, that’s always made me love her. Everyone knows she’s an icon, a caricature, and a through-and-through star. She has been on the scene since the '60s, recording relentlessly and penning more than 3,000 songs. But she has always seemed so far away, tucked between Tennessee and the pages of US Weekly. I jumped at the chance to see her up close. I wanted to know: Is she cool? Smart? Funny? Gay? A feminist? A freak? And more than anything — has she still got it?
On May 9, 2008, the stage was lit ominously with looming, larger-than-life Parton silhouettes. A violin whined. The Chicago Theater was full on the ground floor but the balconies were merely spotted with people, leaving huge chunks unoccupied. At 24, we were two of the youngest ladies in the room. My heart sank a little at the thought that Parton's day has passed.
And then she appeared and it all changed. “Anybody wanna go to a party with me?” Parton sweetly proposed, aglitter as usual in a sequined canary-yellow minidress. She giggled. The crowd swelled. There was a group of ecstatic gay guys behind us going wild, one wearing a baby blue T-shirt that read “Parton or Bust.” The balcony filled with latecomers, and the lucky ones in the front fawned over the pint-sized blondie on the stage.
All of a sudden, it felt as if Parton and I were best friends. She let a tidbit slip before every song, and pretty soon we knew all about her childhood in the Great Smoky Mountains. We knew about her 11 brothers and sisters and her father who couldn’t read or write, about how her family was so poor they often used rainwater to wash their hair. Parton did give us a crowd-pleaser or two — “Anyone remember that beautiful redheaded gal named Jolene?” — but she quickly got to what she really wanted to show off. She belted out a never-used theme song she wrote for Steel Magnolias, telling us that the women in her life are extremely important to her. She performed the first song she ever recorded … back when she was 10.
We also heard tracks from her new album, Backwoods Barbie (Dolly)… her 43rd. When she sings the title track — “I’m just a backwoods Barbie/Too much makeup, too much hair/Don’t be fooled by thinkin’/That the goods are not all there.” — it dawned on me that Parton is acutely self-aware. She is confident enough to put on an intensely personal performance, and vulnerable enough to smart at the tabloids’ biting remarks about her appearance and life. “It hurts your feelings even if it’s true,” Parton told us in a quieter moment, right before singing the words, “Don’t shatter my image with the stones you throw.”
After intermission, Parton switched out of personal mode and reminded us that she is, first and foremost, a performer. The hits spilled out — “Coat of Many Colors,” “9 to 5,” and, for the encore, “I Will Always Love You.” I walked out of the show laughing and joking, still a little floored by how Parton can still maintain an everywoman persona after 40 years of soaring on the charts, nipping, tucking, and rolling in the dough. Either way, despite the sparse balcony, it’s pretty assured — Parton’s still got it.
Issue #25
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