Backwoods Barbie

Her first mainstream country album in years is an important reminder of the breadth of her singing and songwriting talents.

Once again she’s the voice of rural innocence all dressed up in big-city trappings, and still coming through as herself.

A solid half of the album’s songs fall into the classic country-music category of heartbreak songs, one way or another: divorce songs, cheating tales, lonely-night confessions. Yet there’s no danger that these songs on similar topics will blur together, because each takes its own approach.

Backwoods Barbie might not break the bank out there, and it would take a good deal of marketing and luck for any of these tracks to hit the top of the new country charts, but it shows that Parton can still deliver the package in fine style and only the fools among us would ever count her down and out, no matter how many bluegrass albums she does.

Parton victoriously retrains the focus back on the part of her chest that is truly meaningful: her heart. She also succeeds in producing a record that, after years of fine niche efforts in bluegrass and gospel, could actually make a bid for mainstream country radio airplay.

The ratio of less-memorable tracks is higher than on those recent bluegrass outings, but there's enough of the Parton who is one of the greatest country writers and singers of the last half-decade to make it worth hearing.

Opener, the self-referncing 'Better Get to Livin'' is cheesy and disposable even by Nashville standards. The title track, also autobiographical, is better, but like several songs suffers from '80s-style over-production. [June 2008, p.115]

Yes, there's plenty of God and glitz. But the purity of that voice is still brilliantly captivating.

Surprisingly agreeable return from the High Priestess of country kitsch.