“The Whole Thing Was Very Heart-Wrenching”: Dolly Parton Opens up About Emotional Recording Proccess Behind New Album

Dolly Parton is about to add to her already ginormous music catalog with the release of her new album, Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA – Family, Faith & Fables. The album has an extensive set list with 37 songs and includes numerous family members singing on some of the tracks.

Given the title and her family’s participation, Parton’s newest album aims to pay tribute to the region and people that made Dolly, Dolly. However, for Parton, the lineage she is placing in the limelight does not stop for her family in East Tennessee. Rather, Parton plans to go back to her family’s immigration from the UK in the ‘1600s and shed light on how they ended up in The Smoky Mountains. It’s an ambitious project for an ambitious artist and entertainer.

Dolly Parton’s Rambunctiously Loving Family

Like most families, Parton’s family is also a colorful cast of characters. “I’ve got some of everybody in my immediate family, whether they be trans, whether they be gay, whether they be drag queens or whatever” and “We’ve got drunks, we’ve got strays, we’ve got drug addicts — you always have that when you got a family as big as ours. And you love them all,” Parton told the AP.

Thanks to Parton’s large and diverse family, nearly 20 of her family members got to sing on the album. When talking about the recording process, Parton stated, “I got very, very emotional many times when I was singing, especially with the ones that have already passed” and “The whole thing was very heart-wrenching. But it was really amazing and very restoring. It had so many colors of emotions in it.”

Already Released Songs

Before the album’s release this Friday, November 15, Dolly Parton already released a couple of the album’s songs. In addition to releasing “Smokey Mountain DNA,” Parton also released the album’s title track, “A Rose Won’t Fix It.” The title track, written in 1988 yet never released, will feature Heidi Parton, Dolly Parton’s niece.

Dolly Parton’s newest album will be the longest one out of her 49 studio albums. Furthermore, for die-hard Parton fans, the 37 songs will surely give you an intimate insight into how Dolly Parton became The Queen of Country.

Photo by Terry Wyatt/WireImage