Something Special
Perhaps if Dolly Parton looked more like Abraham Lincoln and less like Jayne Mansfield, she would get the same respect from critics and historians as Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. Parton certainly deserves it, for her gifts as a singer and a songwriter are quite similar to those of Willie and Hag--all three have at times perfected a particular regional style of country music (Parton's Appalachiana, Nelson's Texas swing, and Haggard's Bakersfield sound) until it became paradoxically universal.  Parton's 1995 album, the aptly titledSomething Special, is one of those rare glimpses we get at just how talented she is. The disc includes three of her best-known tunes--"I Will Always Love You," "Jolene," and "The Seeker"--from the early '70s, when she was at her songwriting peak, and supplements them with seven more recent Parton compositions in the same style. Like her older, best work, these songs boast a nongimmicky simplicity that allow her mountain background to shine through in the unadorned loveliness of her melodies and the commonsense directness of her lyrics. The album would have been even better if the producers (Steve Buckingham and Parton herself) had used fewer orchestral charts and more traditional country settings, but even the pop arrangements keep the instrumentation restrained to the background and Parton's quivering Appalachian voice out front.--Geoffrey Himes