WaMu Theater

800 Occidental Ave. S

Seattle

August 8, 2008, Friday 8:00 PM

Buy tickets online: US $39.50 - US $85.00

DOLLY PARTON

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Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is a Grammy Award-winning country music singer/songwriter, author, actress and philanthropist. To date, she remains one of the most successful country artists, with 26 number-one singles (a record for a female performer) and 42 top-10 country albums (more than anyone else).

She is known for her distinctive mountain soprano, sometimes bawdy humor, flamboyant dress sense, and her voluptuous figure.

Parton began performing as a child, singing on local radio and television programs in East Tennessee. At age 9 she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, and at 13, she was recording on a small record label, Goldband, and appearing at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. It was that night at the Opry that she first met Johnny Cash, who encouraged her to go where her heart took her, and not to care what others thought.  The day after she graduated from high school in 1964 she moved to Nashville, taking many traditional elements of folklore and popular music from East Tennessee with her.

Parton's initial success came as a songwriter, writing hit songs for Hank Williams, Jr. and Skeeter Davis.  She signed with Monument Records in late 1965, where she was initially pitched as a bubblegum pop singer, earning only one national chart single, "Happy, Happy Birthday Baby," which did not crack the Billboard Hot 100. Additional pop singles also failed to chart including "Without Love" and "Damn".

The label agreed to have Parton sing country music after her composition, "Put It Off Until Tomorrow," as recorded by Bill Phillips (and with Parton, uncredited, on harmony), went to No. 6 on the Country Charts in 1966. Her first country single, "Dumb Blonde" (one of the few songs during this era that she recorded but didn't write), reached No. 24 on the country charts in 1967, followed the same year with "Something Fishy," which went to Number 17. The two songs anchored her first full-length album,"Hello,I'm Dolly"

Parton re-recorded "I Will Always Love You" with Vince Gill, and they won a CMA award for vocal event in 1996. Taken from the album Trio II, a cover of "After the Gold Rush" won a Grammy for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals in 1999, and Parton was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame later that year.

She recorded a series of critically acclaimed bluegrass albums, beginning with "The Grass is Blue" (1999) and "Little Sparrow" (2001), both of which won Grammy Awards. Her 2002 album "Halos & Horns" included a bluegrass version of the Led Zeppelin classic Stairway to Heaven. In 2005, Parton released Those Were The Days, her interpretation of hits from the folk-rock era of the late 1960s through early 1970s. The CD featured such classics as John Lennon's "Imagine," Cat Stevens' "Where Do The Children Play," Tommy James' "Crimson & Clover," and Pete Seeger's folk classic "Where Have All The Flowers Gone."

In 2006, she earned her second Oscar nomination for "Travelin' Thru," which she wrote specifically for the film Transamerica. Due to the song's nature of accepting a transgender woman without judgement, Dolly received numerous death threats as a direct result. She also returned to No. 1 on the country charts later that year by lending her distinctive harmonies to the Brad Paisley ballad, "When I Get Where I'm Going."  In September 2007, Parton released her first single off her own record company, Dolly Records titled, "Better Get to Livin'", which eventually peaked at No. 48 on the Hot Country Songs chart. Her latest album, Backwoods Barbie was released February 26, 2008 and reached #2 on the country charts. The album's debut at No. 17 on the all-genre Billboard 200 albums chart was the highest in her career. More about Dolly Parton...