Few performers have ever been quite as instantly recognisable as Dolly Parton.
There was the voice, of course. There were the songs — an extraordinary catalogue spanning country, pop, gospel and bluegrass. There was the wit, the warmth, the larger-than-life image and that remarkable ability to laugh at herself before anyone else got the chance.
But behind all of that was one of the finest songwriters popular music has produced, a formidable businesswoman, and a philanthropist whose generosity changed millions of lives.
On Wednesday, Mushroom FM will celebrate the extraordinary life and music of Dolly Parton with a special two-hour programme.
Mushroom FM Remembers Dolly Parton airs Wednesday, August 26 at 9 AM Eastern,
with a repeat at 9 PM Eastern on Wednesday, August 26.
I’ve spent considerable time putting this programme together, and rather than simply playing two hours of Dolly's greatest hits, I wanted to tell her story through the music.
So we'll begin with a young girl growing up in a large family in the mountains of East Tennessee, already writing songs and dreaming of Nashville. We'll follow her early recordings, her breakthrough on The Porter Wagoner Show, and the complicated professional relationship that eventually inspired one of the most famous farewell songs ever written.
We'll hear the stories behind songs including Coat of Many Colors, Jolene, I Will Always Love You, Here You Come Again, 9 to 5, Islands in the Stream and many more.
We'll trace the moment Dolly decided that country music wasn't going to put limits around what she could do, her extraordinary crossover into the pop charts and Hollywood, her collaborations with some of the biggest names in music, and the songs of hers that became enormous hits in other people's hands.
And while the music is at the heart of the programme, Dolly Parton's legacy extends far beyond records and concert stages. We'll also look at her remarkable philanthropic work, including the Imagination Library, which has put hundreds of millions of books into the hands of children, as well as her support for education, health care and the community from which she came.
It is quite a story.
There are plenty of familiar songs in these two hours, but I'm hoping there will also be moments when you hear something you didn't know, perhaps a story behind a song you've loved for decades, or a reminder of just how much extraordinary music one woman managed to create.
Above all, this is our opportunity at Mushroom FM to say thank you.
Join me for Mushroom FM Remembers Dolly Parton, a two-hour celebration of her life through her music.
Wednesday, August 26 at 9 AM Eastern, with a full repeat at 9 PM Eastern.