Those Were The Days - Dolly Parton

I bought this CD for my mother after seeing Dolly Parton perform at Radio City Music Hall.

The day of that show, I bought a ticket, raced out of work, onto the subway and up to 6th Avenue and 50th Street. I sat in the second to last row of the uppermost balcony of that magnificent hall, literally on the edge of my seat, rapt.

I found the CD in the glove compartment of my mother's car while driving through Wyoming last week. I was driving alone. My husband and sister were in a second car. On the road from the jackalope capital of the world to the small town I grew up in, I listened to Dolly. And again, she brought tears to my eyes.

It's her voice, the way she balances showmanship with genuineness, the way she emphasizes the r's, how she stops just short of overdoing the ornamentation.

We'd fight but never lose!

Dolly Parton made me cry on the prairie. I was homesick. I wanted to be 8 years old, trying to catch grasshoppers while wading through tumbleweeds.

Still, I would love to hear her remake this album without the complex arrangements. Just Dolly's voice and her guitar.