My Tennessee Mountain Home - Dolly Parton

My Tennessee Mountain Home
Dolly Parton
RCA APL1-0033
1973

I bought this several years ago in an antique store in Jamestown, ND - the home of the World's Largest Buffalo (it is a giant statue.)  I sometimes buy country albums from the 1970s for artists I really like even though almost all of them were primarily singles artists.  If I were smart I'd just buy compilations.  The two big exceptions to that are Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton.  Since they mostly wrote their own material, their albums have a higher quality than the single plus filler formula most of their peers employed.  Parton made many fine albums in the 1970s but this is my favorite.  It is a concept album focused on her childhood.  The cover of the album depicts the house she grew up in and there is a picture of the home she was born in inside the gatefold along with pictures of her as a child as well as some family members.  It also has liner notes written by her father and mother.  The album begins with "The Letter" in which she recites a touching letter she wrote home when she first came to Nashville in 1964.  The only music is a harmonica playing "Home Sweet Home."  "I Remember" is a heartfelt tribute to her parents.  It is enhanced by her gift for evocative descriptions.  "Old Black Kettle" is a lively tune that describes cooking with the kettle of the title and provides a rosy picture of growing up in the country.  "Daddy's Working Boots" as you probably can guess pays homage to her hard-working father.  Parton has always had a way with symbols and metaphors and the boots serve that function in this song.  "Dr. Robert F. Thomas" is an ode to the doctor who delivered her as a baby.  The song celebrates his good deeds and perseverance as a country doctor.  Side one concludes with "In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)" which is a remarkable song that vividly describes her hardships growing up with mixed feelings of nostalgia and relief as reflected in the chorus when she sings "no amount of money could buy from me the memories that I have of then, no amount of money could pay me to go back and live through it again."  The song is an old song that she originally released as a single in 1968 but it fits the theme of the record so well it is hard to blame her for wanting to re-record it for this album.  On a record suffused with nostalgia, it provides some much needed realism.  Side two begins with "My Tennessee Mountain Home" which was the single off the album.  It is an idealized vision of her childhood that has great resonance.  Its emotional impact is a testament to her genius as a songwriter and a performer and it is one of my favorite songs in her enormous catalog.  "The Wrong Direction Home" describes how she misses her mountain home.  In "Back Home" she joyously does return home.  "The Better Part of Life" is more nostalgia enlivened by her richly expressive remembrances.  "Down on Music Row" recounts her early experiences in Nashville.  The story she tells is very detailed and celebrates RCA which is a little misleading since she did not sign with RCA until years later.  Still it makes for a happy ending and gives the album some satisfying closure.  I have to admit that the sentimentality and nostalgia that permeates this album would probably annoy me in the hands of a lesser artist.  Parton's skill with imagery and her incomparable sincerity as a vocalist are able to convince a city-slicker like me that she really did have a wonderful childhood growing up impoverished in the country.  It also helps that her musical accompaniment is so tasteful and subdued, allowing her voice and the lyrics to convey the feelings in the song.  She is so full of love for the subjects of her songs, that she charms me and persuades me of the truth of her vision.  This is a flawless album that is essential for Parton fans and recommended to anyone looking for a little warmth and affection to brighten up their lives.