Dolly Parton revisits North Little Rock for a stop Saturday on her 60-city Pure & Simple 2016 tour. Even those who aren't country music fans should consider her performance, in an arena configuration of 9,000 seats, to be a special treat.
Why? Parton is, pure and simple, Americana personified.
Dolly Parton’s Pure & Simple 2016 Tour
7:30 p.m. Saturday, Verizon Arena, North Little Rock
Tickets: $66-$120.50
(800) 745-3000
In 2004, the U.S. Library of Congress presented the musical superstar, who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with its Living Legend award for her contribution to the nation's cultural heritage.
This petite powerhouse (standing a mere 5 feet sans stilettos) packs quite the punch via her music, movies, marketing and philanthropy.
Parton is 70. Hard to imagine as the flashy, blingy, busty blonde belies her age.
But the Country Music Hall of Fame member's long list of professional accomplishments throughout her entertainment career do not.
"Yeah I flirt, I'm not blind and I'm not dead!" -- Dolly Parton
She began her career as a child.
Seriously.
Consider that the Locust Ridge, Tenn., native first sang on a Knoxville, Tenn., radio station when she was just 11 and first graced the stage of the Grand Ole Opry at 13. Upon graduating from high school, she moved to Nashville and three years later replaced Norma Jean on Porter Wagoner's TV show. Two years after that, she was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry and in 1974, the personable singer-songwriter (she has written more than 3,000 of them) launched her solo career.
Since then, she has sold 100 million records worldwide, achieved more than two dozen certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum awards and had more than two dozen No. 1 songs on the Billboard Country charts. She has also won numerous awards, including seven Grammys and the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year. Her music, although rooted in country, also delves into pop, bluegrass, folk and gospel.
Beyond the music, Parton has appeared in numerous films, including Nine to Five and Steel Magnolias. She opened Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. (followed by dinner show venues in Pigeon Forge, Branson, and Myrtle Beach, S.C.; a fourth opened this year). And she established the Dollywood Foundation that funds Dolly Parton's Imagination Library across America and in Canada. It gives 60 million preschool children a book each month from the time they are born until they enter kindergarten.
"You'll never do a whole lot unless you're brave enough to try." -- Dolly Parton
While she may be 70, don't consider this a retrospective tour as Parton is still serving up and inspiring new entertainment. Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors, a bio-pic set in the Great Smoky Mountains circa 1955 that focused on Parton's childhood years, aired on NBC in December. Coat of Many Colors, a 2015 Penguin Young Readers book, was published by Grosset & Dunlap last fall.
Parton last performed in central Arkansas in December 2005 when the North Little Rock venue was relatively new and then known as Alltel Arena. At that time, her latest CD was Those Were the Days, a collection of covers, most of them folk tunes from the 1960s and 1970s.
The current tour -- Parton's first major U.S. and Canadian tour in more than 25 years -- coincides with the Aug. 19 release of her latest double-disc album, Pure & Simple. During her stop in Arkansas, she is expected to perform her hit songs (from "Jolene" and "I Will Always Love You" to "Here You Come Again" and "Nine to Five") along with some from the new album and some older tunes she hasn't performed live for decades.
Weekend on 08/11/2016