Dolly Parton - Musikladen 1977

Dolly Parton - Musikladen 1977Goodbye to real American dreamer Dolly Parton! Yesterday after the sad news broke, the various online timelines overflowed with love and appreciation for the singer-songwriter-philanthropist-actor-theme-park-proprietor. And it’s all deserved. Just imagine — you devote your life to spreading joy, acceptance and kindness and it comes right back to you in the end. There’ll never be anyone else like Dolly, but we can still try to follow her radiant example. Hers is a wide-ranging legacy, but music was always at the heart of it. Yesterday, I watched a new-to-me Musikladen performance from 1977 and was swept away by the effortless confidence Dolly brought to the stage, leading a big band through a downright ecstatic set of slightly disco-fried country pop, equal parts ballads and boogies. West Germany is a long ways from East Tennessee, but you’d barely know it here, as Dolly sends laser beams of pure positive energy across the airwaves.