I often find myself apologizing for my love of country music, and Dolly Parton is no exception. She is an especially difficult artist to convince people is worth listening to, let alone that she is not an alien life form.
Not that I don't understand. As a kid, she scared the crap out of me. That bleached Barbie hair, her eerie, high-pitched Minnie Mouse sounding voice and those preternaturally humungous chest would frighten any one.
But no more. Dolly has grown on me with age, as she would on anyone who has gives this latest album a chance. It's no "I Will Always Love You", but the sock it to "em single "Gone" and Dolly's cowgirl cover of "Stairway to Heaven" (yes it's cheeky, but it's good) feature burbling banjos and highlight her lovely voice, which I have since decided is floaty and beautiful and angelic and not rodent-like at all.
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