Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, “The Essential Porter and Dolly,” RCA. (***)
It’s been so long since Parton has been even interesting as a singer or writer that it’s easy to forget she once was a marvelous talent who ranked alongside Cline, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and Emmylou Harris on any list of the great female country singers.
The best way to sample the creative Parton is on her early RCA solo albums, but these ‘60s and ‘70s duets with her mentor give us a taste of the innocence and wonder of her most creative period. She’s at her best on the nostalgic, feel-good gospel bounce of “Daddy Was an Old-Time Preacher Man,” where she sings about a man who “preached hell so hot that you could feel the heat.”
*
Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
