Credit: Photo By John Anderson

Dolly Holiday

“It takes a lot of money to look cheap,” laughed Smoky Mountain songbird Dolly Parton after her Vegas entrance at the Frank Erwin Center last Thursday. Editing hits like “9 to 5” down to a verse and chorus, and cutting “Jolene” short, the buxom icon took turns at the piano, guitar, dulcimer, fiddle, pennywhistle, Jew’s harp, and banjo while cracking back-of-the-bus jokes about Willie Nelson, Ray Benson, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. What a way to make a living!

This article appears in December 10 • 2004.

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