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Dolly Parton biography

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Country music queen Dolly Parton is a cultural icon whose voluptuous figure and powerful voice made her popular on both stage and screen.

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Parton explored the music of her Appalachian roots with The Grass Is Blue (1999) with a little help from such talents as Alison Krauss and Patty Loveless. The record won a Grammy for best bluegrass album in 1999. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame the following year.

Later Years

In 2006, Dolly Parton received special recognition for her lifetime contributions to the arts. She was one of five artists feted at the annual Kennedy Center Honors. This achievement is just the latest award for this remarkable performer who has forged her own place in country music history. She also picked up a second Academy Award nomination for the song "Travelin' Thru," which appeared on the soundtrack for Transamerica.

Continuing to write and record, Parton released Backwoods Barbie (2008). The album featured two country hits "Better Get To Livin'" and "Jesus & Gravity." Parton got into public feud with satellite radio shock jock Howard Stern around this time. She was upset after he aired a segment in which previous spoken recordings were manipulated to make it sound like she made some obscene statements.

After writing so many of her own hits, Parton had penned the songs for a new musical based on her earlier hit workplace comedy, 9 to 5. The show debuted in the fall of 2008 in Los Angeles before its brief Broadway run.

Parton may be in her sixties now, but she shows no signs of wanting to slow down. She released Better Day in 2011, which fared well on the country album charts. The following year, Parton published her latest book Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You. She is also the author of several other works, including Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business (1995).

Personal Life

Parton has been married to Carl Dean since 1966. The couple met at a laundromat two years earlier.

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      Country Legends

      When it comes to singing about struggle and emotion, there are few genres that match the intensity of country music. Country music was born from musicians that were brave enough to wear their hearts on their sleeves from happiness to heartache. Because of country icons like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton and Jimmie Rodgers, this southern, soulful genre has grown to become loved by many. Browse through the legends that established country music as the popular genre that it is today.

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      Influential Female Musicians of the 1960s

      American society experienced a revolution in the late 1960s and early 70s, especially for African-Americans and women. Janis Joplin was the finest white blues singer of her generation; female singer-songwriters like Carole King and Joni Mitchell shared their innermost thoughts and feelings; Aretha Franklin emerged as the Queen of Soul; and Bonnie Raitt established herself as both a strong vocalist and a brilliant guitarist. Through their music, the women of this era created the soundtrack of social progress.

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      Bluegrass Musicians

      The "high, lonesome" style that defines the bluegrass sound comes from the experiences of the music's original composers, the Scots-Irish immigrants of Appalachia. Early bluegrass musician Lester Flatt brought the sound of the genre into the popular lexicon in 1948, when he helped found The Foggy Mountain Boys. He was joined by fellow musician Earl Scruggs, who expertly picked his banjo in the three-finger style that is carried on in the music of bluegrass great Ricky Skaggs. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Alison Krauss snagged more than 26 Grammy awards for putting a contemporary twist on the music of her bluegrass predecessors—proof that the genre still resonantes with listeners.

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