Covering The Queen of Country

Dolly Parton - she of the coat of many colours – has given us the greatest gift of all in the many cover songs she has performed over the rockin’ years. But, puns aside, the Queen of Country has also provided the inspiration for bands and artists of all genres and generations. Covers of Dolly Parton songs have spanned the spectrum from hardcore to balladry. It speaks to the genius of Dolly’s relatable, emotionally rich lyrical breadth and adaptability that such a genre-defying collection of artists seek to reinterpret her work in their own style.

French-Canadian singer Renee Martel covered “9 To 5” (“De 9 a 5”) in 1981. You didn’t know you needed to hear Dolly’s ode to workplace tedium and exploitation in French until Martel’s sexy, sassy version blasts from your speakers. Complete with horns, squelchy bass and a harmonic backing choir, the whole thing is a blast of honky tonk fun. It’s considerably more suitable to a backyard barbecue than the version by Swedish punk band Millencolin, unless all your friends are wearing Sex Pistols t-shirts and safety pins in their ears. Millencolin took on “9 To 5” as a raspy voiced anthem for spiky haired, combat boot wearing punk kids. The angular guitar zig-zags around a vibrating, juicy bass line.

Significantly less beer-soaked and sweaty is British singer Laura Marling’s acoustic tribute to “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind” , which the diminutive songstress performed on House of Strombo. “There needs to be more women, there just needs to be more women,” she tells George Stroumboulopoulos directly before diving into the song, which I think Parton would admire. Her sweetly pared-back, deep inflection and melancholic air as she asks, “Do I ever cross your mind?” might just have you picking your heart up off the floor afterwards. The original song was written by Parton and released as a duet with Chet Atkins in 1976. If Marling was to perform it as a duet, could you imagine it with Jack White perhaps? Or the gothic intonation of English singer Paul Banks, former frontman for Interpol?

Less melancholic, but still a heartbreaker, is an ode to Dolly’s beloved “Jolene” by country-pop sensation Miley Cyrus. Cyrus' rollicking, impassioned plea to the woman stealing her lover in her cover of "Jolene" strikes all the notes of a woman who knows her lover is going to leave her. Arguably, if anyone can appreciate the essence of Dolly Parton's heartbroken plea to another woman, it is her goddaughter, the chameleon singer Miley Cyrus. The version she recorded for The Backyard Sessions showcased her perfectly raspy, southern-tinged vocals - no post-production flourishes or editing required. Cyrus and Parton came together on stage to perform the same song in 2010, which was equally worthy of attention. The contrast in age, appearance, vocal range and octave as well as the playful drama between the two as they appear to be singing to one another is compelling and thoroughly entertaining. Two natural storytellers, two natural performers, two country icons.

Jayden Riley was even younger than Cyrus when she also took on “Jolene”. At age 10, this enormously talented Canadian girl honoured the spirit of the song without losing her own flourishes and essence. Riley has also covered Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Guns ‘N Roses. Hand the girl a microphone and she can belt out some classics like she wrote them.

So far, even if they’re not true to the original in much beyond lyrics and melody, the covers have been immediately identifiable as Dolly Parton songs – unless, of course, you’ve been hiding under a rock and only recently emerged to discover Dolly’s back catalogue. The curious 1990s take on “Down From Dover” by SPELL isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Spell, an English misery-pop duo recorded a version of "Down From Dover" in 1993. The psychedelic swirl of guitars and the contrast between Boyd Rice's baritone spoken word and Rose McDowall's feminine girl-group-type harmonies makes for an interesting cover, though it's hard to find Dolly's original under the stylings of this unusual version.

Getting back to that genre-defying factor in the many covers of Dolly though, and just like Spell, this particular cover by a Norwegian metal musician and producer is worthy of listening for pure curiosity, like it or not.

Leo Moracchioli thrashes guitar and drums in a cacophony of metal mayhem. He then rumbles and half-screams his version of "Jolene". It's strangely addictive in its catchiness, and the video is hilarious. In it, multi-instrumentalist Moracchioli is seen playing every instrument in his studio - a one man band.

For anyone over 30 and under 60, “I Will Always Love You” will likely bring to mind Whitney Houston’s glass-shattering ballad from the 1992 film soundtrack to The Bodyguard. The song starts off innocently enough, her deliciously soulful gospel voice is almost a lullaby. Then, boom, that impossibly huge voice goes into 110% Diva mode and she owns this song in a way that only the late, great Whitney Houston could possibly own the song Dolly originally wrote and released in 1973. While Whitney dedicates her version to the tenuous love affair she is having with her bodyguard (a very suave Kevin Costner), Dolly has explained that she wrote the song upon leaving The Porter Wagoner Show, which she'd starred in for seven years. Porter Wagoner was both her mentor and her duet partner on his TV program. Their professional parting of ways eventually had amicable results, with Wagoner producing her next record Jolene soon after. The song went to number one on the charts in 1974 and again in 1982 when the song featured on the soundtrack to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

There are many more cover versions of Dolly Parton’s glorious catalogue of songs. Equally, there’s many occasions in which Dolly has covered other artists, making their songs her own even if it’s purely for a once-off performance. The glory of Google is that you’ll find a treasure trove of archival footage of Dolly covering other artists and if these cover versions have whetted your appetite, you’ll find a double album’s worth of “Jolene” covers alone.

Happy listening!

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