Dolly Parton after her recent induction at Rock n Roll Hall of fame, she made a commitment to release a pure rock n roll album. Dolly Parton is alegend o n her own,a country legend, singer, songwriter, actress and definitely with mass approval and acknowledgment from the rock community. So as soon as she made in public knowledge her intension to release a rock album a line up from THE BEATLES to JUDAS PRIEST artists /members line up to join her in her new project. Even to difficult to sing Steve Perry (ex JOURNEY) makes an appearance. Richie Sambora, Sting, Rob Halford, Simon Le Bon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Mick Fleetwood,Debbie Harry, Miley Cyrus, P!nk, Chris Stapleton, Joan Jett, Stevie Nicks,Steven Tyler all showed up to an album of 30 songs, two twird of them been covers.
Most of the original songs , the most successful ones are those who covers the pop rock, soft rock, classic rockera , "Open arms" with Steve Perry, a great "Night moves" with Chris Stapleton, "Keep on loving you" with Kevin Cronin , "Long as i can see the light" with John Fogerty, original 'Either or " with Kid Rock who loves his country outfit are among those who stands out. Parton has a strong voice and even strongest personality and even when the she's a bit "weak" for the "I hate myself" duet with Joan Jett she still manages to cover her inadeguacies. She is also a daring artist covering "Stairway to heaven" in its rock form. Her duer with Stevie Nicks on "What has rock and roll ever done for you" with Stevie Nicks is another stand out track with the two ladies enjoyng the duet and showing that on the track. The more country rock like "Tried to rock n roll me" with Melissa Etheridge is where she really shines. An excempetion is the metal "Bygones" with Rob Halford where she really knails it."You're noo good" with Emyllou Harris and Sheryl Crow is another example of the FM/jazzy rock that suits perfeclty Parton's voice. In the same vein with "Heartbreaker" and Pat Benatar an FM hard rocker full of muscle and riffage.
Among the albums originals "Rockstar" with its autobiographical character and the guitar of Richie Sambora, stans out as a real nice FM rock song. Also the "I dreamed about Elvis" a twelve bar country rocker with the participation of Ronnie McDowell, a tribute to one of Parton's and rock n roll eternal heroes and lifetime Rock n Roll king.
The dissapointment and for me personally sacrilege is her cover of "Free bird" . A song where she has also LYNYRD SKYNYRD and Gary Rossington in one of his last performances participating along with the vocals of LS late singer Ronnie Van Zant with special permission from his widow. She absolutely destroys the song as she cannot bring her coutry soul to fire this classic rock original. If the rest of the album is a nice mix bewteen soft rock originals and quality karaoke with stars particpating in their own song, "Free bird" itself with its desecrating reults gives the album a 7 insted the 9 you ll see all around the press. Please Mrs Parton dont do that again, THe South would be eternally gratefull if you ditih this version deep in to the vaults.
ps there is also a cover of "Jolene" at the deluxe version of the album with Eurovision rockstars MANESKIN that ofr me its a disgrace even to talk abou it as the band has nothing to do woth rock n roll, they re product of the TV/Media and should stay there.
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