Search - Dolly Parton :: Jolene/My Tennessee Mountain Home

Outstanding two-fer of classic Parton LPs

hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 12/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"BMG's pairing of 1973's "My Tennessee Mountain Home" and 1974's "Jolene" doubles the pleasure of Buddha's earlier straight up reissue of the latter, combining two superb albums from Parton's pre-Hollywood period. In addition to the original 10 tracks of "Jolene" and the 11 tracks of "My Tennessee Mountain Home," BMG's added a bonus track ("Love, You're So Beautiful Tonight"), and stuffed the accompanying booklet with period photos, new liner notes from Brendon Griffin, and (thank you BMG!) credits for the Nashville pickers who made the music.After finding stardom with Porter Wagoner in Nashville, solo recognition came more grudgingly. The tough times no doubt cast a spell or two of homesickness, resulting in the sweet childhood memories of the 1973 LP, "My Tennessee Mountain Home." Parton sings lovingly of her parents ("I Remember" "Daddy's Working Boots"), home ("Old Black Kettle" "My Tennessee Mountain Home" "Back Home"), and remarkable neighbors ("Dr. Robert F. Thomas"). As an early entry in her career, this album forms something of a bookend with 1998's "Hungry Again," especially the traditional, acoustic backing tracks that would soon give way to crossover stardom.1974's "Jolene" includes the chart-topping title track, as well as the original version of her farewell to Porter Wagoner, "I Will Always Love You." The former, though covered by others (including a stupendous bluegrass version by Rhonda Vincent), is still best known for Parton's original. The latter, however, is closely associated among radio listeners, film viewers, and MTV watchers, with Whitney Houston. Parton's original, filled with conflicting strength, vulnerability, fragility and resolution decimates Houston's overblown remake. The remaining eight tracks, six from Parton, one from Wagoner, and one from Blaise Tosti ("It Must Be You") all find Parton at the full flower of her first go-round as a pure country singer-songwriter.The only nits one might pick with this reissue, and they're minor, are the achronological running order (1974's "Jolene" tracks before 1973's "My Tennessee Mountain Home"), and the lack of chart information. Aside from those, the presentation of full albums provides an all too rare opportunity to hear Parton's unedited, early genius as both a songwriter and singer."

Two classic albums from Dolly's peak years

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 07/28/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"These two albums contain three famous Dolly songs - Jolene, I will always love you and My Tennessee mountain home - but they aren't the reason to buy this. They have been released many times on varios compilations and will no doubt appear on many more. Of the other songs, Early morning breeze was first recorded by Dolly for her Coat of many colors album, Lonely coming down was on My favorite songwriter Porter Wagoner, while In the good old days first appeared on an album with that title in 1968.The Jolene album has been released in it's entirety, first in Canada and later in America. Among it's wonderful lesser-known songs are When someone wants to leave, which has been covered by bluegrass groups including Wild and Blue.The Tennessee mountain home album makes it's debut on CD here, and it's my all-time favorite Dolly album. Apart from the opening narrative The letter and the previously recorded In the good old days, all the songs are upbeat and optimistic, just like the title track. All the songs are either about Dolly's childhood, or her early experiences of life in Nashville.To further add to the pleasure, one track is included from the brilliant but often overlooked Bubbling over album - Love you're so beautiful tonight."

Classic Dolly

J. M. Zuurbier | Canada | 09/25/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"BMG decided to rerelease some of Dolly's older albums, since they were so short you could fit two albums on one disc, this one is JOLENE/MY TENNESSEE MOUNTAIN HOME. This truly is classic Dolly Parton. MY TENNESSEE MOUNTAIN HOME was released in 1973 and JOLENE in 1974. This album also features a bonus track, which is great to have, "Love, Your So Beautiful Tonight", definately a highlight. Some of the best from the JOLENE album include the title track (forever classic), "Randy", "I Will Always Love You", "Lonely Comin' Down", and more. From MY TENNESSEE MOUNTAIN HOME we have the highlights "Down On Music Row", "Letter", "I Remember", "My Tennessee Mountain Home", "Back Home" and more. Overall this is a nice album to own if you want to hear Dolly's roots, and some of her best music before she became really popular. It's a little pricey, but it'll be worth it for the Parton fans such as myself who are willing to pay the extra money to have these songs on CD."