| |
|
Little Sparrow is the 2nd instalment of Dolly’s Bluegrass very
successful trilogy. Wisely, Parton has decided to keep the
same players for the follow-up to The Grass is Blue. Steve
Buckingham once again produces, while Jerry Douglas, Bryan
Sutton, Stuart Duncan, Jim Mills, Barry Bales, and Alison
Krauss return as backing musicians. As on her previous effort,
Parton mixes original compositions (old and new), country and
gospel classics by other composers, and unexpected bluegrass
arrangements of pop songs. The big surprise on The Grass Is
Blue was a convincing bluegrass rendition of Billy Joel's
"Travelin' Prayer". This time, Parton reinvents Collective
Soul's alternative rock hit "Shine", complete with a lilting
banjo line.
What makes Little Sparrow different from its predecessor, and
in some ways more exciting, is that it frequently goes right
back to the source of bluegrass -- Celtic music. Not only are
there banjos and autoharps on the album, but Northern Irish
group Altan contributes whistles, bouzoukis, and haunting
Gaelic verse.
The album's traditional flavour is strongest, however, in the
deeply poetic and tragic lyrics of the Parton compositions
Little Sparrow, Tender Lie, Mountain Angel and Down from
Dover. All are epic tales of love and loss in which Parton
creates a landscape littered with the broken hearts of women
who have lost everything after loving the wrong men. Down From
Dover incidentally is one of 2 re-recorded tracks on this
album, originally featuring on The Fairest of Them All from
1970 and cited by Dolly as the best she has ever written. But
because of its controversial subject matter, one of the verses
was omitted and it was never released as a single at the time,
although it was a main staple of her live concerts in the late
70’s, early 80’s. Here the missing verse has been restored and
we have the whole song in all its perfect haunting glory. The
other track given the rework treatment is the beautiful My
Blue Tears, which for me isn’t a patch on the 1971 original or
the live version from Heartsongs.
The other cover versions are the Cole Porter’s I Get A Kick
Out Of You which has been brilliantly reworked into a
bluegrass style, I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby
(originally recorded as a duet with Porter in 1969), Seven
Bridges Road with its fantastic harmonies, The Beautiful Lie,
(another painful breakup) and finally the In the Sweet By and
By, which is done a very traditional style.
Few would have guessed that Dolly would return to pure country
music, and do so with such spectacular results. Little Sparrow
contains some of the most beautiful and affecting music Dolly
has ever made, and the fact that she is doing it in her fifth
decade makes it all the more dazzling an achievement.
Tracklisting:
1. Little Sparrow: written by Dolly
2. Shine: originally a hit for Collective Soul
3. I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby: originally a hit for
The Louvin Brothers in the mid 50’s
4. My Blue Tears: written by Dolly, originally on Coat of Many
Colors
5. Seven Bridges Road: definitive version recorded by The
Eagles in 1980
6. Bluer Pastures: written by Dolly
7. Tender Lie: originally a 1988 hit for Country band Restless
Heart
8. I Get a Kick Out of You: written by Cole Porter
9. Mountain Angel: written by Dolly
10. Marry Me: written by Dolly
11. Down from Dover: written by Dolly, originally on Fairest
of Them All
12. Beautiful Lie: written by David McDade
13. In the Sweet By and By: Traditional Christian Hymn
14. Little Sparrow Reprise: written by Dolly
|
Little Sparrow - 03/08/2009 
