CD: Dolly Parton - Better Day

"I wanted to do an album that would be very uplifting and positive, as well as inspirational," quoth the divine Miss P of her latest waxing. Starting as she means to go on, she opens with the chunky honky-tonk pop of "In the Meantime", which crams a panorama of hopes and fears behind its perky exterior. We shouldn't worry about nuclear war and Armageddon, she advises, because "nobody knows when the end is coming" and besides, "God still lives in the hearts of men". Oh, and we should take care to look after the planet, too.

There's quite a lot of this sort of holy-rolling self-helpism sprinkled through the dozen tracks, and it can become tiresome. "I ain't giving up cos I know there is always tomorrow!" Dolly wails in the burstingly overeager country-rock of "Shine Like the Sun". In "Better Day", the buxom belter vouchsafes that "Troubles and woes and misery ain't gonna get the best of me". In "The Sacrifice", it comes as no surprise to hear that "I think about Jesus and all that he gave".

Well OK, Parton's a Tennessee gal and she's aiming for the heart of her red state constituency, but she's far more persuasive when she eases off the feel-good steroids and embraces her traditional hillbilly roots (and besides, wasn't old-time country music designed to do exactly the healing-in-hard-times job Parton is attempting here?). "Just Leavin'" is a nifty slice of bluegrass powered by speedy mandolin and pin-sharp fiddle, with a slithering dobro and sweet, agile harmonies for good measure. Then there's "Country is as Country Does", a backwoods hopalong where Parton cheerfully admits she's "country to the bone".

She also has a go at a lazy, rolling blues in "Better Day", which isn't quite her forte, though her quivery, lip-trembling vocal is just the job for the lachrymose "I Just Might", a classic cornball ballad drowned in weepy pedal steel guitar. This disc is a slick, sleek production, but it can't disguise the fact that its primary purpose is to give Parton some new material to plug on her current world tour.

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