Dolly Parton “New Harvest…First Gathering” 1977. Paying tribute today to great Dolly (b. 1946, d. yesterday August 25th, 2026), along with the rest of the world. She was the most rare of musicians (humans, really) who is appreciated by, like, everyone. Yesterday (and continuing today) my feed has been filled with tributes from punks, goths, garage-rockers, boomers, zoomers, x-ers, hippies, folkies and everyone in between who adored her. Given my 80’s new wave/punk background I think she first came into my consciousness with 1980’s 9 to 5 (both the movie and the song), and then again when Whitney Houston covered Dolly’s epic, anthemic in 1992 (Dolly herself scored a hit with the original in both ’74 and ’82 but really only on the country charts, which I didn’t pay any attention to). As an adult my love for “Jolene” has grown and grown – damn, what a perfect song. Her grit, smarts, open-mind and generosity were legendary, on top of her jaw-dropping songwriting prowess. Anyway, while we’re not big on country music here, we do have a copy of New Harvest…First Gathering which was her 18th solo LP and the first she self-produced. It hit #1 on the country chart and went to #71 on the Billboard pop chart. The lead track, “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” was released as a single; it reached #11 on the country chart. A couple of other tracks were also released as singles in Europe. While Parton wrote the majority of the album, there are two covers: the Temptations’ “My Girl (My Love)” and Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher.” Both are excellent, with creative reworkings making the tunes absolutely hers. Parton’s compositions are twinged with country twang but the arrangements are for sure more adult pop orientated (with 70’s flavor of course): “How Does It Feel” is a great example of the marrying of those two genres and “Getting in the Way” adds a little funk into the country hills. There is little folks agree on these days, but Dolly is  someone we all love.