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Sevier County’s favorite daughter, Dolly Parton, was back home for the holidays in Tennessee the past couple of weeks with family before she heads out next week to California, where she will be “taking care of business,” she has said. Hopefully that will include picking up a couple of new honors.
In what is hopefully a sign of things to come at the bigger awards in coming months, Dolly’s tune “Travelin’ Thru” from the film “Transamerica” took home two honors in the past week: Best Song at the Sixth Annual Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards in Arizona and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Sierra Awards in Nevada. Dolly’s composition, which she 1 in 1991. On the magazine’s pop singles chart, the tune jumped 10 places to No. 62. Up in Canada, the song rose an impressive 15 digits to No. 47 pop.
Dolly’s current CD, “Those Were The Days,” on the other hand, slipped on the charts last week, falling three to No. 44 country and five to No. 15 for independent label albums.
While the album hasn’t made any critics’ “best of the year” lists yet, other Dolly-related projects have. As the year drew to a close, several reviewers named Bettye LeVette’s “I’ve Got My Own Hell To Raise” as one of the best releases of 2005. The R&B diva’s disc includes a smashing cover of Dolly’s “Little Sparrow.” Others making the rounds on a few of the country “best of” tallies included Paisley’s “Time Well Wasted” (on which “When I Get Where I’m Going” appears), The Bellamy Brothers’ “Angels & Outlaws, Vol. 1” (with Dolly singing on “If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me”), George Jones’ “Hits I Missed . . . And One I Didn’t” (with the Dolly duet “The Blues Man”) and Martina McBride’s “Timeless” (with Dolly harmony on “I Still Miss Someone).
Dollywood closes its 2005 season Friday, having welcomed nearly 2.4 million visitors through its gates this year, a more than 7 percent increase over 2004 attendance, according to the annual report of theme parks by Amusement Business magazine released this week. The publication ranked Dollywood as the 25th most-visited park in North America. The park opens again in April.
Happy New Year to everyone from Dollymania.net: The Online Dolly Parton Newsmagazine, which this week features the seventh annual installment of the world’s only Dolly Year In Review.

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