 |
|
|
||
|
Dear Dolly Part'ners, Well, here we are in the year 2000 finally. Firstly we would like to wish Dolly the best birthday ever from all her fans here in the British Isles. Dolly was born on the 19th January 1946 and don't she just look great? We have lots of information for you and thank you for being so patient. We know many of you look forward to receiving your Dolly Part'ners UK newsletters and we thank you for your kind letters of appreciation. Keep those letters coming in with your news & information on anything related to Dolly. For those of you with access to a PC you can email us on dollypartners@talk21.com. Update on The Grass Is Blue Dolly's beautiful bluegrass album, The Grass is Blue debuted on the Billboard Country Music charts at no. 28 and attained a high of 24. It is currently still in the Top 50 and at No. 3 in the Gavin Americana charts. Having made no. 1 in the Bluegrass charts & reaching no. 3 in the UK Country Music charts, the album has done exceptionally well according to Sugar Hill. They recently informed us that the album has sold 60,000 & is expected to make 100,000 by the end of the year. This may not sound much to you but when you consider there has been next to no airplay in the States, Sugar Hill are claiming it a winner. It will be their biggest ever seller for the bluegrass label. The CD was also voted by listeners as album of the month on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire in November. You can catch Helen West's Sunday Country Music Show on 95.7 & 96 FM. Amazon.com, the on-line CD shop have informed us that The Grass Is Blue was their 8th best release of 1999 & their biggest selling bluegrass CD. (Trio 11 was their 10th best selling release). Hall of Fame & Award Nominations There have been many magazine write-ups & reviews of Dolly's appearance at the CMA awards programme where she was honoured with induction to the Country Music Hall of Fame. The UK Country magazines all ran features during November, December 1999. You may recall that Shania Twain said on the awards programme that Dolly was a huge influence and that she wanted to meet Dolly before she left the building. Well unfortunately Dolly did not hear her say this as she had left immediately after her performance. But she did catch it on TV when she got home in Brentwood. She immediately arranged for a bunch of flowers and a note to be sent to Shania for her kind words & even hinted that she would like to record with her sometime. Although Dolly & the Trio ladies lost out at the CMA awards for Vocal Event, "After the Goldrush" won Video event of the year for the country music video channel CMT. BMI has listed Dolly's "I Will Always Love You" as 13th most played song of the century, with 5 million airplays. Whitney Houston's version of the beautiful song is no. 7 single of the decade based on chart performance. The 2000 Grammy awards programme will take place in February and Trio 11 has two nominations: 1) Country Album of the Year, 2) Best Country Collaboration for "After The Goldrush". CDs To Look Out For "Just The Way I Am" was released by RCA/BMG on 14th December and has been digitally remastered from the original master album that saw the light of day in October 1972. It is currently only available on-line from various cybershops. However you may want to make the effort to obtain it as it does feature a new cover and as mentioned is digitally remastered. "Your Kisses Are Charity" - Virgin 7 24389 6391 2 4 has been released again as the B side of Culture Club's new single "Cold Shoulder" andonce again made the U K charts, at no. 25. "Two Doors Down" was due for release on the 14th December 1999 on MSI's masters series. We are not too sure at this stage whether this is the same as a recent Australian release of the Dolly dance tune. You may recall several Dolly Part'ners UK issues ago we asked you to let us know your favourite Dolly albums from the 70s, well Buddha have confirmed via RCA/BMG that they were really pleased with the response from the UK andhave decided to release virtually the whole back catalogue. We have already seen the release of Coat of many Colours, Jolene, Heartbreaker and 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs. Dollywood 2000 Whilst at her press conference in Dollywood for the Christmas season opening ("Carol of the Trees"), Dolly announced the plans for new features at Dollywood. When the park opens in the spring there will be a $5 million, 15000 sq. foot "Interactive Treehouse" called Dreamland Forest. Dolly said this would be a huge fun area for kids, which will also include games and activities. The 2nd announcement was that in 2001 there would be the largest expansion ever, when a $20 million water park is added. It will also feature a 25000 sq. foot wave-pool, a family raft ride through natural mountain terrain, a child's pool area, and a "Turbo Twister" speed slide, which simulates a mountain waterfall. A subject that is dear to Dolly's heart is "The Imagination Library". She announced that it would now go national. The Imagination Library provides a book each month to every child of pre-school age in Dolly's home town of Sevier County, Tennessee. The Dollywood Foundation will now work with communities around the country to introduce the scheme to their area. Dolly Part'ners
UK subscriber, Mark Kisby from Wisbech wrote in to us asking for details
of Dollywood, such as prices etc. The best thing is to contact Dollywood
direct on 001 423 428 9488 or write to: Finally whilst on the subject of Dollywood, it is rumoured that our Country Icon will not be performing her usual concerts this year, although she will still be in attendance for the Grand Opening in April. Odds And Ends Dolly has said that she is going to be keeping really busy again this year and has no intentions of retiring. In fact she said "I hope to die in the middle of a song somewhere on stage". As we have said before she never stops trying to please her fans. After the hugely successful New Year's concert at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville, where Dolly was really on form, it seems she has renewed strength. Her voice is a s strong as ever and of course we are all hoping that Dolly will be visiting us in the UK once again. HOW ABOUT A CONCERT IN THE UK DOLLY! You could always have Boy George to make a guest appearance. He thinks you are a true Icon. On a recent TV appearance with Ant & Dec (CD UK) Boy George said that he took Dolly to a Greek restaurant and was amazed that she ate everything on her plate. He also stated that she was the "greatest Icon I have ever met. She's better than Madonna. She wanted no fancy demands or Limos". Dolly Part'ner, Mrs Fairchild of Inverness wrote in to ask if "Blue Valley Songbird" is available on video. Sorry to say it is not as yet. However, it is possible it may turn up on your TV screens, if you have Sky satellite. The Granada Breeze channel often shows programmes from the US Lifetime channel-so keep a look out. Regretfully there are no compilation videos of Dolly's songs either, although the occasional one does turn up on "various artists" compilations. Surely there would be a huge demand for a compilation of Dolly's promo songs. After all she has won several awards for her song videos. Such as "Rockin' Years", "After the Goldrush" etc. "The Jew Store" will be Dolly's next film. She will play Miss Brookie, based on a true story about a Jewish family who moved from the Bronx to Tennessee, when the Ku Klux Klan were ruling the South. The Country diva has also submitted 5 songs for consideration in the animated film of Tom Sawyer, which MGM expects to release on home video in time for Easter. Another new film being made in March is "A Country Rap" which will be a Christmas feature movie, where Dolly plays the part of a woman who runs an orphanage. Recent reports also state that Dolly may do a re-make of the Ted Turner movie "Solid Gold Cadillac". Another Dolly Part'ners UK subscriber, Suzanne Spicer, was recently presented with an award from Channel 4 viewers, who voted Suzanne their favourite collector. Suzanne was featured on "Collectors Lot" when she took numerous items from her Dolly Parton collection to the studios last year. In the United States Dolly was voted 4th favourite Country music singer of all time by readers of People magazine. In the UK, Country Music News & Routes (now called Country Music & More) named Dolly along with Hank Williams as most influential and popular Country artist of the century. A private reception was held for Dolly at the Country Music Hall of Fame on the 6th January. In attendance were many of the singers and artists Dolly has worked with over the years, such as Emmylou Harris, Kitty Wells, Alison Krauss plus many members of the Hall of Fame, media & press & Dolly's family. Dolly was presented with her medallion for the Hall of Fame inception. Dolly sang "My Tennessee Mountain Home" & "Coat of many Colours". Now we have a real poser for you. In a recent Country Music People (UK) magazine article on the fiddler Benny Martin, Benny said he took Dolly to court over her song 9 to 5. Dolly Part'ners UK reader Dale Mitchell informed us that the article stated 9 to 5 had the same melody as Benny’s fiddle tune "Me & My Fiddle". Benny sued Dolly and apparently received $45000. However, as Dale points out in Dolly's autobiography "My Life & Other Unfinished Business", she states that she was taken to court over the words to the song by a couple known as Cosmic Dancer. Dolly won and the case was thrown out of court. We also know of other reports that say Dolly plagiarised their song with 9 to 5. It all seems a bit far-fetched really. But can anyone throw any light on this matter and inform us what really happened? Bounce Music are gearing up for their UK release of "Walking On Sunshine" in the summer and as we said before we are hoping that Dolly can make it to these shores again to help promote the single. We would dearly love to see Dolly in the British charts. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Dolly will always be our ARTISTE OF THE MILLENNIUM. Finally if any of you are looking for Dolly albums, singles, books etc to help with your collections, please contact Michael at the above address. He has many for sale. All proceeds will go towards keeping Dolly Part'ners UK a free service to the fans of the wonderful Dolly Parton. We look forward to hearing from you with your letters & calls & hopefully we will be having another competition shortly. Best wishes Michael & Joe |
||||
|
Home | Catalogue | Artists | Upcoming | Free Stuff| Contact Us
|
