This week with Dolly

By Duane Gordon news@theheraldnewspapers.com Fans will soon be able to stop trading the fuzzy, aged, pirated videotape copies of Dolly Parton’s famed 1976-77 syndicated television series -- well, at least six episodes of it, anyway. The website TV Shows On DVD on Monday revealed that MPI Home Video will be releasing “Dolly Parton & Friends,” a two-disc set to include six episodes of the series plus a couple of bonus songs from her time on “The Porter Wagoner Show.” Although the site stated the collection “should be out in February,” a spokesperson for MPI told Dollymania.net that details on the set are still being finalized and they tentatively plan to have it out “sometime in the first quarter of 2007,” so the date may change and right now could be anywhere from January to March. He added that the bonus tracks have not been finalized, so they haven’t decided yet which of those songs to include, and he declined to comment when asked whether this will be the first in a series or a stand-alone collection. Look for more information, likely in a few more weeks, when the release is officially announced. Dollymania had first followed this story back in 2001, when MPI originally planned to re-issue the series under the same title but as a three-disc set, although those plans were postponed for about a year and then scrapped indefinitely for reasons not made publicly known. The new set will reportedly run two hours and 45 minutes and include Dolly’s episodes with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray and Randy Parton, Rod McKuen, Ronnie Millsap and Marilyn McCoo and Bill Davis Jr. The night is finally here for Dolly’s much-anticipated guest spot on The Disney Channel tween series “Hannah Montana” on Friday. The show stars Miley Cyrus as a girl who moved to California from Tennessee but has kept secret from her new friends that she performs as the superstar singing title character. Her father, a songwriter, is played by real-life father Billy Ray Cyrus. Dolly appears as herself, playing Miley’s godmother, spouting words of advice throughout the episode such as: “Being a teenage girl is harder than walking through a balloon shop with a porcupine purse.” The show premieres at 8 p.m. Eastern tonight (Friday). Yet another Porter & Dolly collaboration hit shelves next week. The two joined up as a trio with Christie Lynn, who worked with Porter as his “girl singer” for about seven years from the mid-1990s to 2002, for a cover of Dolly’s composition “Beneath The Sweet Magnolia Tree,” which Porter Wagoner and Dolly had recorded together for their 1980 album “Porter & Dolly.” The new version appears on Lynn’s new release, “Christie Lynn Sings Country, Gospel & Bluegrass,” which came out Tuesday on Gusto Records. (Order your copy at www.gustorecords.com.) This is not, however, the new duet Dolly recorded with Wagoner several months ago which was first reported on Dollymania back in April. A spokesperson at the label confirms that recording is likely to appear on a gospel album Porter may have out several months from now, but its track listing has yet to be finalized. Other Dolly-related products which hit stores on Tuesday included a new duet of “Tomorrow Is Forever” by Dolly and Solomon Burke on the soul legend’s first-ever country disc, “Nashville” (which The Tennessean called “one of the finest albums of the year”) and Kenny Rogers’s new DVD “The Journey,” which includes some Dolly footage. Tickets went on sale Saturday for two more Dolly casino concerts this fall: Nov. 16 in Uncasville, Conn., and Nov. 18 in Verona, N.Y. The large main floor seating areas at both venues quickly sold out except for a handful of single-seat tickets, and after a few days the mid-level seats appeared to be about a third gone, leaving plenty in the upper-level sections. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster. Rhonda Vincent and Dolly dipped another three spots on the Great American Country (GAC) Top 20 Country Countdown, the network announced last Friday. Their video for “Heartbreaker’s Alibi” fell to No. 9 in its seventh week on the viewer-voted chart. Cast your ballot for the duo in next week’s countdown at www.gactv.com and tune in tonight to see where they land this week! Dolly landed at No. 26 on CMT’s “40 Greatest Albums” countdown, which premiered last Friday night, with 1974’s “Jolene.” Dolly also showed up performing with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris on “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues” from Harris’ No. 20 entry, 1979’s “Blue Kentucky Girl,” although their contribution to the disc was not acknowledged on the program. (Ronstadt appeared again with her CD “Heart Like A Wheel” at No. 34, but surprisingly their “Trio” collaboration missed the list.) The network’s selection for the No. 1 most influential country album of all time was Willie Nelson’s “Red Headed Stranger.” About Dolly’s record, Sara Evans noted: “It’s a tremendous album,” adding about its title track: “And I don’t think there’s ever been another song written like that.” Jack White, who covers “Jolene” in concert, offered: “I immediately connected with that song the first time I heard it and the last time I heard it, which was a few days ago, I still connected with it.” And Wade Jennsen of Billboard noted that the LP also provided the first recording of her classic “I Will Always Love You.” Dolly spoke of both songs using footage shot for her “CMT Greatest Moments” special. The Americana Highway radio program on WIVK in Knoxville has announced the winners of its first awards program, the HEMI Awards. With more than 40,000 votes cast, Dolly was selected by the public as its first inductee into the Americana Highway Hall of Fame. She had also been up for Favorite Female and Favorite Song in a Movie (“Travelin’ Thru”), but those honors were taken by pal Rhonda Vincent and Dolly fanatic Reese Witherspoon (with Joaquin Phoenix for “Jackson” from Walk The Line), respectively. The promotions have begun for next month’s Sugar Hill Records boxed set, “Dolly Parton: The Acoustic Collection, 1999-2002.” The collection, which re-packages her three roots music CDs for the indie label with a bonus disc of additional material, gets a fairly large ad in the new issue of Country Weekly magazine on newsstands this week. The set hits stores Oct. 10. Be sure to keep up-to-date with Dolly by visiting Dollymania.net: The Online Dolly Parton Newsmagazine!