parton graces preview day at dollywood

Dolly Parton celebrated her theme park's season passholders Friday, making what she noted was her first appearance at Dollywood’s passholder preview day prior to its general public opening.

She joined the cast of the Festival of Nations headliners, Le Grande Cirque's Imaginé, to address a crowd in the Celebrity Theatre and promote the park's year of festivals and events as well as plug her Cracker Barrel CD, upcoming Broadway musical and the Imagination Library.

Following her remarks, she was scheduled to take questions from the media, but the press microphone malfunctioned, so she called on passholders in the crowd to shout out questions: Does she still like to sit and sing on the front porch (hopefully she'll get some time off to do just that soon), why was there no "Blue Smoke" on Sha-Kon-O-Hey! ("It's not about the Smokies; that's about a train."), and when is her dance CD is coming out (she's still working on it – and it will include her much-talked-about track "Just A Wee Bit Gay").

This reporter wrapped up the session asking if she wants to be remembered 100 years from now as an entertainer or "The Book Lady," to which she jested: "A hundred years from now, ain't none of us gonna care what they call me!"

Seriously, she added: "I want to be known by all of that. I love my life. I love that I've had a chance to do so many of things. And I do love entertaining. I certainly want to be known as a singer and a songwriter and an entertainer. My Daddy was so proud, though, when the kids started calling me 'The Book Lady' because my Dad was one of the reasons that I started the whole Imagination Library. He was a good man, never had a chance to get to go to school. My Daddy couldn't read or write, but he was the smartest person . . . Daddy used to get a smile a mile wide when the kids would call me 'The Book Lady,' so I think my Daddy would rather me be called 'The Book Lady.'"

Damp, cold weather prompted the cancellation of her planned Parade of Nations Friday afternoon, but to make it up she popped in for an unannounced and unplanned stop with the Kingdom Heirs to perform "9 To 5" and "I'll Fly Away." Photo galleries, audio files and a video report are available on Dollymania.net: The Online Dolly Parton Newsmagazine.

CMT.com on Tuesday debuts Dolly's "Unplugged At Studio 330" concert. The online show features acoustic takes of "Backwoods Barbie," "Only Dreamin'," "Jolene," "I Will Always Love You" and "9 To 5" with interview footage interspersed among the songs.

Dolly's video for “Backwoods Barbie” debuted at No. 9 on Friday on the Pure 12 Pack countdown on CMT's digital cable channel, Pure Country, and at No. 17 on the regular CMT Top 20 Countdown. Her Very Best Of Dolly Parton, Vol. 1 gained five places to No. 71 in its 78th week on the Irish pop albums chart and re-entered the Canadian top 50 country albums at No. 50. Her decade-old The Grass Is Blue debuted on the American country catalog albums chart for the genre's biggest-selling titles too old to qualify for the regular chart. It came in at No. 25 on the 25-position tally thanks to an Amazon.com promotion that offered the album for download at about 90 percent off regular price. Steve Martin’s The Crow – New Songs For The 5-String Banjo with its Dolly guest spot held onto the No. 1 bluegrass albums chart for a seventh week.

There will be a Dolly item at this year's Las Vegas Night Auction for the Dr. Robert F. Thomas Foundation on April 18: an evening for two featuring VIP seats at the May 9 premiere of Sha-Kon-O-Hey, tickets to a reception following the show and a photo with Dolly. Tickets to the auction are $50 each and available at 865-429-6715.

Dolly is receiving her ninth award from the Academy of Country Music, it was announced last week. She has been selected by the Academy's Board as this year's honoree for the ACM Jim Reeves International Award, which recognizes contributions to expanding country music's audience around the world.

It was Dolly heaven at Cracker Barrels across the country last week. In celebration of the store's exclusive "Collector's Edition" of her CD Backwoods Barbie (with three previously unreleased bonus tracks), limited-edition pink rocking chairs and bound photo book, the restaurants had lots of Dolly marketing posters and played the album on a loop, interrupted only by clips from Dolly herself touting the release.

Although the chain had previously announced that each store would be limited to two chairs each, it turned out that some locations were delivered just one each, while a few others received more than two. Most sold out before lunchtime, although a handful still had chairs available for several days.

If you missed out, however, it may not be a complete loss. Store officials confirmed that plans are underway to redesign the chairs for sale starting sometime in April. The new rockers should look different and won't be numbered, but they should remain bright pink. The original chairs, which featured the Dolly signature logo and a butterfly on the front along with an engraved number plate on the back, were limited to a run of 1,350 units.