Tuesday 23 August 2011

Dolly

Last night I went to see a legend in concert. Dolly Parton. I've been listening to her music since my parents played it when I was a child and I wanted to see her perform live while she is still touring and at her peak.
At 65 years old, she was amazing. She was this tiny sparkling firefly up there in the distance. I was mesmerised by her figure and her energy, and of course her music.

There were moments of magic, like when she talked about her childhood growing up in the Smoky mountains and then played My Tennessee Mountain Home against a backdrop of a photo of the family wood cabin. Her loving description of her mother, followed by a rendition of My Coat of Many Colours was really touching, only surpassed by her haunting rendition of Little Sparrow.

For me that's what she does best, telling her own unique story through her music, turning the everyday into something beautiful, poignant and inspiring.

And yet you can't talk about Dolly without mentioning her incredible sense of fun and of humour. Yep, it sure was fun.

3 comments:

ric-rac said...

Wow - sounds like fab. fun! Live music is the best, so exciting and heart warming, you can't beat it. It's even better when you see your hero, it's like meeting and old friend (even if it is only from a distance)! x

Serena Simmons said...

I am sooooo jeleaous!!!! I wish I had known. She must have been fab. Thank you for telling us all about it....great pics!
Did she sing one of my favourite songs Harper Valley PTA? : )
Serena
x

freckleface said...

I wish had known you would have liked to see her, I would have definitely invited you. I missed her in 2008 because I couldn't find anybody who would go with me, but it turns out there are a lot of Dolly fans out there! No she didn't sing Harper Valley PTA or indeed many of the old favourites. She played some new ones, which were good, and then a bit of a random selection of covers, which I wasn't keen on. But she did play Jolene, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream, I will always love you, Muleskinner blues and Here you come again as well as the ones I mentioned in the blog. It's probably boring for her, but that's what I went to see, some good old country a bit of bluegrass and a bit of gospel. xx
Steph, it was like seeing an old friend, she is so very familiar, and when the crowd stood up and all sang along to Islands in the stream, that was a brilliant feeling.xx