this week with dolly

By Duane Gordon
     Dolly Parton’s four-disc “ Dolly ” boxed set from Sony's RCA Nashville and Legacy imprints took the No. 1 spot of 2009’s best country music album re-issues in the 10th annual Country Music Critics Poll conducted by The Nashville Scene, it was announced last week.
     The poll considers the opinions of dozens of the most celebrated music critics in country music circles at newspapers, magazines, radio and television programs nationwide.
     It marked Dolly's only appearance on any of the publication's top 10 lists this year, but she barely missed one other.
     Although the newspaper usually doesn't reveal any artists who placed outside of the top 10 on its Artist of the Year list, this year it mentioned several in a sidebar comparing their performance in the poll versus the end-of-year charts from Billboard and noted in that piece that Dolly tied for No. 13 on this year's tally with Lyle Lovett.
     For 2008, Dolly placed at No. 7 in the year's top songwriters and her “Backwoods Barbie” was the critics' choice as the 18th best country album of the year.
      On the current charts, “Dolly: Live From London” held steady in its eighth week at No. 66 country albums, Billboard magazine revealed last week.
     Up north, “Once Upon A Christmas” with Kenny Rogers dropped back out of the top 50 Canadian country albums, down from No. 26 the previous week, its eighth for this holiday season.
     Back in the States, Brad Paisley's “Time Well Wasted,” featuring Dolly on “When I Get Where I'm Going," slipped four on the country catalog chart to No. 24.
     Steve Martin's “The Crow - New Songs for the 5-String Banjo,” with a Dolly collaboration, remained steady at No. 1 bluegrass albums in its 46th chart week.
     “NOW That's What I Call A Country Christmas ,” which includes Dolly's “Hard Candy Christmas,” fell off the charts, down from No. 28 country in its 11th week, No. 24 holiday albums in its 12th week there, and No. 170 in its ninth week on the pop top 200.
     Dolly will be a guest on RFD-TV's “The Marty Stuart Show” later in the new season, Stuart revealed last week. Others joining him over the season will include Vince Gill, Hank Williams III and Ralph Stanley.
     Although it was actually released Nov. 3, a new charity single with Dolly is just now getting press.
     Country Weekly and a few other publications last week plugged the song, "You Can't Say Love Enough," from new country quartet MJ2 featuring several celebrity guests, including Dolly, Bill Anderson, Heidi Newfield, Larry Gatlin, Cowboy Troy and Wayne Newton, to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The song is available as an iTunes download.
     Those who were hoping to combine their March 27 Tennessee trip to Dollywood's season opening with the "Grand Opening" of Dolly's Nashville store, Trinkets & Treasures, are out of luck.
     It was announced last week via an e-mail blast from her official record label Web site, DollyPartonMusic.net , that the ceremony will take place at the store March 12 featuring a Dolly appearance, two full weeks prior the park’s opening.
     The retail outlet, located at 126 Second Avenue, opened Thanksgiving week and features mostly items sold by the online store of the same name on the label's website.
     A Los Angeles judge on Thursday threw out a legal malpractice lawsuit involving Dolly's “9 To 5: The Musical.”
     A trust representing the estate of the late filmmaker Colin Higgins, who directed the original film and co-wrote the screenplay, had sued his former attorney, who had later represented screenplay co-writer Patricia Resnick as she wrote the script for the new musical.
     The suit alleged that the attorney neglected to obtain permission from the trust to allow Resnick to turn her screenplay, which Higgins had re-written before filming, into a musical and that it was a conflict of interest for him to have represented both writers.
     The judge found no issues in the case that could be tried in court. The suit never alleged any wrongdoing on the part of Dolly, Resnick or anyone else associated with the production – just the attorney – and never threatened to shut down the musical, which ran on Broadway last spring and summer and will begin a national tour this fall.
     Carol Channing, most well-known for playing the title role in Broadway's “ Hello, Dolly” but just released her first collection of gospel music, “ For Heaven's Sake ,” sings the praises of another Dolly in the new issue of Country Weekly .
     The current choice for the “I Love My Country” section, where celebrities generally not identified as “country” explain what they enjoy about the genre, Channing chose “Coat of Many Colors” as one of her favorite country songs and mentions being invited as the celebrity guest to welcome Dolly to Los Angeles when her “New Harvest, First Gathering” was released in 1977.
     You can say hello to all the latest news and information about Dolly by visiting the news page at Dollymania.net: The Online Dolly Parton Newsmagazine for its nightly news updates!