Dolly Parton
The Grass Is Blue (Sugar Hill)
Dolly Parton at age 53 still looks like a Tennessee mountain girl’s idea of a glitzy music and movie star. Parton’s records of the last 20 years were similarly made over to the point of caricature, and her country roots vanished amid layers of pop production. On “Hungry Again” (1998) and now “The Grass Is Blue,” Parton is back to making music that matters. Her all-bluegrass effort sparkles with soaring harmonies and stellar string work on recast versions of her own “Steady As the Rain” and “Will He Be Waiting for Me,” plus a wide and sometimes surprising array of covers, including the Louvin Brothers’ “Cash on the Barrelhead,” Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” and Billy Joel’s “Travelin’ Prayer.”
