A fitting release that takes her back to her Smoky Mountain roots.
On August 25th, 2026, Dolly Parton sadly passed away at 80-years-old in Nashville Tennessee. Dolly had been dealing with undisclosed health issues for the last year or so, and she previously shared that she was having issues with severe kidney stones. Aside from that, she understandably didn’t share more, though clearly there were more serious issues going on.
Dolly’s reps confirmed she sadly died following a “brief battle with cancer,” though the specific kind was not revealed.
And today, we’re hearing her first posthumous release, a cover of “Bound to Ride” which is part of the all-star tribute album Where the Soul Never Dies: Celebrating 80 Years of The Stanley Brothers that’s set to drop on October 16th. The tracks were all recorded live in the studio, except for Dolly’s song, which was actually recorded in 2022 when COVID was still raging and she wasn’t taking any chances. Instead, Dolly recorded at her home studio, and she’s backed by the First Ladies of Bluegrass.
Of course, the bluegrass duo the Stanley Brothers helped popularize “Bound to Ride” through their 1964 recording, and this year, they’re part of the 2026 Country Music Hall of Fame class in the Veterans Era Artist category.
According to Rolling Stone, the album was produced by banjoist Alison Brown and bassist Garry West, and the First Ladies of Bluegrass consist of Brown on the banjo, Becky Buller on the fiddle, Sierra Hull on the mandolin, Missy Raines on bass, and Molly Tuttle on guitar.
West says they were shocked to hear Dolly call each of them out by name in the song, saying she “over-delivered,” which shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point:
“I call it the full Dolly. We didn’t know what we would get back, and she really did over-deliver. We were shocked. We couldn’t have gotten anything better.”
Dolly sounds incredible, and it’s really neat that this was already in the works before she passed. It’s unclear if she had other music coming down the pipeline or plans for future releases, but if that is the case, in due time, I’m sure we’ll get to hear it.
And in terms of some other country music names you might recognize on the project, Willie Nelson, Sierra Ferrell and Jamey Johnson are also featured.
The producers also told Rolling Stone they hope bringing in modern artists will bring in a new audience to the music of the Stanley Brothers, as they have influenced so many iconic artists well outside of the country world:
“I feel like a lot of their stuff is just in the ether.
It’s just there, and it’s taken for granted. Some of these things are such classics that a lot of people that play these tunes now — because they’re so commonly played in pickup bands — I would bet a lot of the musicians don’t even know the origins of them as Stanley Brothers songs, or at least from their recordings.”
Of course, they were popular in a completely different generation, but it’s cool to see all of these current artists putting their own spin on such classics.
Especially for Dolly, she grew up on traditional folk, mountain, and bluegrass music of and traditional Appalachian gospel songs with her family, and throughout her life, it was always an inspiration. She recorded several bluegrass albums throughout her career too, including her 1999 masterpiece The Grass Is Blue, Little Sparrow in 2001 and Halos & Horns in 2002, which featured her legendary bluegrass rendition of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.”
Long live Dolly Parton… do yourself a favor and listen here:
