Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton

Backwoods Barbie

(Dolly Records)

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There’s always been “more than meets the eye to Dolly Parton,” said Ken Tucker in Billboard. Her first commercial country album in years, Backwoods Barbie, is a testament to the busty, big-haired bumpkin’s talents as both singer and songwriter. She not only wrote most of the songs, but also produced them with the help of longtime guitarist and arranger Kent Wells. She even released the album on her own label. At 62, Parton might be faking that flaxen hair of hers, but she has never been a dumb blonde, said Jon Pareles in The New York Times. Running the show here, she pours on the glitz and glitter, dolling up Backwoods Barbie with a “modern Nashville” sound. The album abounds with slick buildups and radio-friendly refrains, but Parton never loses a sense of “rural innocence,” even when her voice is “dressed up in big-city trappings.” Two tender ballads, “Made of Stone” and “Cologne,” tackle country’s usual subject of infidelity while demonstrating “the fragile flutter in her voice and the reedy strength behind it.” Only when Parton lets pageantry pop back in does Backwoods Barbie suffer, said Mark Kemp in Rolling Stone. Her cover of Fine Young Cannibals’ “She Drives Me Crazy” is “Disco Dolly at her cheesiest.” But when she sticks to simplicity instead of sequins, this country girl sounds right at home.