Dolly Parton
Gift Guide
Reviewed by Darcie Stevens, Fri., Dec. 8, 2006
Dolly Parton
The Acoustic Collection: 1999-2002 (Sugar Hill)
As the most business-savvy country singer of the 20th and 21st centuries, Dolly Parton's squeezing every nickel out of her adoring public. The Acoustic Collection repackages the singer's three Sugar Hill albums from 1999 to 2002: Little Sparrow, The Grass Is Blue, and Halos & Horns. The Grammy-winning Grass, Parton's first trip back to the mountain bluegrass she grew up on, is a fine LP, incorporating reworked originals like the beautiful title track and "Endless Stream of Tears" along with Billy Joel's "Travelin' Prayer" and Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone." Sparrow follows suit with a sincere collage of love songs and stories highlighted by her original "Down From Dover" and her now-famous cover of Collective Soul's "Shine." H&H is the most inventive of the three, with the Minnie Pearl-esque "These Old Bones," covers of Bread's "If" and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," and the infectious "Shattered Image." None of the three albums feature anything special – B-sides, remastery, or even added tracks – and the bonus DVD is just a smattering of videos, a few remixes, and a couple of songs off the tribute album Just Because I'm a Woman: The Songs of Dolly Parton (Sugar Hill, 2003). In other words, any savvy Dolly Parton fan has already shelled out their hard-earned nickels for these old bones.
