Album Review: Dolly Parton Pure and Simple

Now seventy and currently on a mammoth tour across the US, Dolly Parton is, of course, a country music icon, a brand unto herself and a role model for self-reliant women everywhere. But despite the showbiz, the glitz (and the platinum wigs), she remains at heart the embodiment of that wholesome country girl from the Tennessee Mountains whose dreams came true.

Fittingly, she returns to her roots here with a more understated approach, the kind that served her so well on early classics like 'Jolene' and 'Coat Of Many Colors'. The backing is largely acoustic, with guitar, mandolin, pedal steel, piano and a light rhythm section, allowing the purity of her voice to shine even brighter than usual. The title track - a mid-tempo classic country tune - extols the virtues of uncomplicated relationships. That theme continues on the heartfelt 'Forever Love'.

She tugs at the heartstrings on the ode to motherhood, 'Mama', while her sense of humour is fully intact on the playful 'Head Over High Heels'. Echoing her oft-quoted sentiment that "it takes a lot of money to look this trashy," she chirps, in that lovely Appalachian drawl of hers about, "Hair piled on my head/ I painted my lips red/ got a hot date tonight."

Elsewhere, she revisits an older tune 'Tomorrow Is Forever' - a lovely lament, and a throwback to her duet days with Porter Wagoner. The nearest thing to a pop song is the nostalgic 'I'm Sixteen', which finds her reliving her carefree youth, "throwing caution to the wind" with an arrangement that isn't '9 To 5' or 'Here You Come Again' but is nonetheless slightly at odds with the overall flavour of the album. The standout tune, 'Say Forever You'll Be Mine' is almost, if not quite, on a par with her best-known song, 'I Will Always Love You'. With just finger-picked guitar, plaintive fiddle and that voice, the melody, sentiments and emotion will surely melt hearts.