Dolly Parton sings her family’s story in ‘Smoky Mountain DNA.’ She says it’s her ‘favorite album’

NEW YORK – Dolly Parton Musical history begins much further back than most might expect: in the 17th century British Isles. That’s where their ancestors came from, eventually landing in the screams of East Tennessee and its familiar mountain ranges, bringing their songs with them. A new album releasing Friday, “Smoky Mountain DNA: Family, Faith & Fables,” credited to Dolly Parton and Family, explores the rich legacy of the Partons and Owenses, her maternal family, while performing alongside five generations of family members.

“My grandfather used to say that when I became famous, he said, ‘Well, she came out crying in the key of D,’” she told The Associated Press. “I think we all did.”

“Smoky Mountain DNA” was an inevitable labor of love, teaching Parton more about her family line.

“We are something like the Carter family. “We go back generations,” Parton said. (The Carters are widely considered the first family of country music.)

“I imagine this will be my favorite album,” Parton said. “This really involves, you know, my grandmothers and my grandfathers, my uncles and my aunts and all the people who have always had the greatest influence on my life. The ones I remember as a child, and it even goes back further than that.”

Richie Owens, Parton’s cousin, whom she describes as “the family historian,” produced “Smoky Mountain DNA.” He says the family has been archivists for a long time, but the idea of ​​curating a record started around 2010 and 2011, and was delayed a few years. Then, right before the pandemic, Parton approached Owens and said, “we need to get together and start trying to put together all this information (and) material,” he recalls because Owens had already been working. In a family story, specifically related to their grandfather’s violin, they came together to create what is now “Smoky Mountain DNA.”

For some of the new songs, Owens used digital technology, which he compares to AI assistance in The Beatles’ last new song, “Now and Then,” used to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demo to a new composition: for “restoration work.”

“With the technology available, we were able to achieve wonderful, miraculous situations where we were able to go in and create new musical tracks” from previous vocal recordings of deceased relatives, he says. This was about cleaning up the crackles and noise, not about creating manipulated recordings.

“I got very, very emotional many times when I sang, especially with those who have passed away and just remembering their voices, listening to them,” Parton says. “It just threw me into a deep emotional place, just like I had them back again. So, this whole thing was very heartbreaking. But it was really surprising and very comforting. “I had so many colors of emotions.”

Parton and Owens began curating the album by looking for songs she had co-written with deceased relatives, or those of deceased relatives that she had previously recorded. Others were hits and an integral part of her heritage story, and songs recorded with younger family members, including those born in the 21st century, featured more of Parton’s co-writing, but with styles that felt true to each person.

That’s one of the many reasons the album, which focuses on country, folk, hymns and bluegrass, spans a wide range of genres, including a kind of soulful take on R&B (as on “Not Bad ” with Shelley Rená), swamp pop (“I Just Walked By” with Parton’s late uncle Robert “John Henry” Owens), various rock genres (“Where We Live Tomorrow” with Rebecca Seaver and “Crazy in Love with You” with Estelle, Richie Owens’ daughter).

The album also revisits Parton’s own career: there’s a delightful version of “Puppy Love,” originally recorded when she was 13 and which she now sings with some of the younger members of her family.

“Some of the little ones,” he says, “remind me a lot of me when I was young and played guitar.”

“Smoky Mountain DNA” could only end with one song: “When It’s Family,” originally co-written by Parton and released as “Family” on her 1991 album “Eagle When She Flies.” It’s a moving song about acceptance, in which Parton sings: “Some are preachers, some are gay / Some are addicts, drunks and street / But no one gets rejected / When it comes to family.”

“I neither condemn nor approve of anything. I simply love and accept people as they are,” he explains. “And I don’t judge because I’ve said it before, I have some of everyone in my immediate family, whether they’re trans, whether they’re gay, whether they’re drag queens or whatever. I mean, we have drunks, we have homeless people, we have drug addicts… that always happens when you have a family as big as ours. And you love them all.”

So what about all the stuff that’s not included here? “I’m sure we’ll do compilation albums,” Parton says. “We’re also doing a documentary series, taking all the music back to the old country with a lot of our relatives there still singing all those old songs they brought here… It’s really moving.”

Meanwhile, he is working on a musical based on his life, which is scheduled to premiere. Broadway in 2026. Like “Smoky Mountain DNA,” it’s a chance to reflect on his career and maybe even what his legacy will become five more generations in the future.

“I hope a lot of my songs last that long,” he says. “And I hope to be remembered as someone who tried to do something good in the world and gone, you know, some good things.”