Mountain kin makes for good music

The amazingly talented Dolly Parton is reaching out among her family and back into history for her upcoming album and a docuseries project “Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA – Family, Faith & Fables” expected out in November in partnership with Owepar Entertainment.
 
“I cannot believe that it has been 60 years this month since I graduated from Sevier County High School and moved to Nashville to pursue my dreams,” Dolly said in her release on DollyParton.com. “My Uncle Bill Owens was by my side for many years helping me develop my music. I owe so much to him and all the family members past and present who have inspired me along this journey. I am honored to spotlight our families’ legacy that is my Smoky Mountain DNA.”
 
Dolly hails from Sevier County, Tennessee, now the home of Dollywood and many others of her amusement endeavors. It is where her father Robert Lee Parton and Avie Lee Caroline Owens raised a large family including many singers, pickers and actors such as Stella Parton.
It is from the rich traditions and experiences of growing up in the Great Smoky Mountains that Dolly uses over and over again as her inspiration for her songs such as “Coat of Many Colors,” “In My Tennessee Mountain Home,” and so many others. Many of her stories in song touch on those who influenced her life like “Daddy Was An Old Time Preacher Man,” inspired by her grandfather the Rev. Jake Owens who will be featured prominently in the project.
 
Her first cousin Richie Owens, of Richie Owens and the Farm Bureau, is producing the project, which is said to include up to 40 recordings and a four-part docuseries.

Many of her immediate and extended family will be featured on the project going back for generations. The docuseries will include concert performances filmed at Knoxville’s historic Bijou Theater, featuring Dolly and family. The songs within the series will combine with the stories about the Parton and Owens families and their members while exploring the family heritage and lineage tracing back from the Appalachians of East Tennessee to the United Kingdom in the 1600s. Album Preorder will launch June 21.

On a personal note, I am related to both the Partons and Owens. I look forward to learn more about my extended cousins and I am hopeful and excited that the docuseries may reveal some interesting tidbits about our common grandparents in the old country and those who made the journey into the Great Smoky Mountains.