51 years ago today.
On this date in 1973, Dolly Parton released her 11th studio album My Tennessee Mountain Home, which was actually a concept album about her childhood in the mountains of East Tennessee.
Songs like “In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)” and “My Tennessee Mountain Home,” recount how she’s thankful for the lessons she learned growing up in poverty, as well as the fondness she still has for that place and the people there.
The first track on the album, “The Letter,” is a nostalgic note to her parents that Dolly wrote on June 2nd, 1964 a few days after she moved to Nashville. She writes about how much she misses them and everything back home, though insists they don’t need to worry and she’s making money and getting by.
She also notes that she believes that if she tries long and hard enough, “someday I’ll make it,” which will bring the chills for sure… spoiler alert, she was very, very right:
“I cried almost all the way to Nashville
And I wanted to turn around a few times and come back
But you know how bad I’ve always wanted to go to Nashville
And be a singer and songwriter
And I believe that if I try long enough and hard enough that someday I’ll make it”
Later in the album, Dolly talks about her early days on Music Row trying to get a record deal, where she specifically thanks Chet Atkins and RCA’s Bob Ferguson, as well as many others more generally on “Down On Music Row.”
From top to bottom, it’s an extremely autobiographical project and while the album nor the lead single were commercial hits, it’s one of her strongest albums and remains a fan-favorite to this day. It really is a neat peak into her early life and ambition to make it in the industry, coupled with her very apparent love for where she comes from and the people there.
Do yourself a favor and give these a spin today…
“My Tennessee Mountain Home”
“In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)”
“The Letter”
“Down On Music Row”
