1 of 2

"Jesus, I've got Jesus/He's my everything/He lifts me up, He gives me wings/He gives me hope and He gives me strength/And that's all I'll ever need/As long as He keeps lifting me up/He is my life, He is my God/He is my wings, He is my flight/Lift me, I've got Jesus, I've got Jesus and that's all I need" —from "Jesus and Gravity"

Dolly Parton's latest country music album, Backwoods Barbie, may well be her tackiest cover art to date. I spent a while wondering whether it was ironic or not: the Barbie dolls in Dolly clothes? The mudflap girl with Dolly's, ahem, proportions on a yellow Ford pickup? This country superstar has always poked fun at her image, but she's also maintained it at great effort and expense. Trying to figure out whether Dolly Parton is ironic is like looking for the end of a mobius strip.

In Backwoods Barbie, Parton once again offers what has made her famous since 1963: songs that any country girl can belt out in the car with utter conviction. And true to her country roots, two or three of the songs are about cheatin', five more are about being cheated on or abandoned, and one is about emancipation from a no-good arrogant man. And then there are the personal songs that only Parton can carry off: a couple of inspirational autobiographical songs, as well as one about Jesus.

Her songs put forward Christian spiritual elements, like faith and prayer, but Parton has never been one to get specific with theology. She told Larry King in a 2003 interview that, while she is very spiritual, "I wouldn't say that I'm religious. I grew up in a very religious background. … I trust God, I love God, and I love the thoughts of it. Even if there was no God, I'd prefer to believe it, because I prefer to believe in something greater than we are. It takes all of the pressure off of you. You don't have a bunch of ego problems."

It's hard to see how all of these themes can work together on the same album without knowing that Parton pitches herself as the product of "backwoods sensibilities." This is her explanation for her sense of beauty, her sense of morality, and her religion. "The way I look is just a country girl's idea of glam," she sings in the title track. "Too much makeup, too much hair/Don't be fooled by thinking that the goods are not all there … I've always been misunderstood because of how I look/Don't judge me by the cover, cause I'm a real good book."

Those who only know Parton as the godmother of Miley Cyrus or her guest stint on American Idol might think she is the concoction of marketing experts. But Dolly Rebecca Parton grew up part of a poor, Pentecostal family of 14 in a small town in Tennessee's Smoky Mountains. She has shown remarkable consistency in her persona over the last 45 years: self-deprecating, bawdy, kind, vulnerable, flamboyant, all-American, smart, and ambitious. And those traits, carried throughout her songs and her career, make Dolly both loveable and formidable.

In a way, Backwoods Barbie is a re-introduction of that same Dolly Parton that Johnny Carson fans got to know. She is trying to resist moving into that stage where every album is a slightly modified retrospective (from 1970's The Best of Dolly Parton to 2007's The Very Best of Dolly Parton), contributing her Christian –themed "Travelin' Thru" to the controversial transgender film Transamericaand writing the music and lyrics for with 9 to 5: The Musical.

next page... |  1 of 2