American music series (Austin, Tex.)

Introduction: Seven Bridges Road -- Why'd you come in here lookin' like that -- Steady as the rain -- The seeker -- Here you come again -- Jolene -- The grass is blue -- Coat of many colors -- Islands in the stream -- Do I ever cross your mind -- Will he be waiting for me -- Down from Dover -- Silver dagger -- Don't think twice -- I don't believe you've met my baby -- Little sparrow -- 9 to 5 -- Two doors down -- Put a little love in your heart -- Blue smoke -- The bargain store -- The story -- I will always love you

"When everything fell apart for Lynn Melnick, she spent the money from her NYPL fellowship on a trip to Dollywood with her family. Melnick's trauma began long before 2018, but events of that year forced her to relive portions of it--abortions, drug abuse, rape--even as she was confronting new pain in the loss of close friends and family. Dolly Parton's music had been a balm and a source of inspiration for decades, and so the trip to Dollywood was "a personal reckoning with my traumatic, often violent past...the culmination of a difficult year that left me wanting to get to the bottom of just what it is I love and need to say about Dolly." Each chapter of this book explores some aspect of Melnick's life through the lens of one of Parton's songs. Melnick is a mother, wife, daughter, survivor, poet; this manuscript has her examining sex, sex work, religion, jealousy, class, nostalgia, aging, illness, motherhood, addiction, abortion, and art, among other topics that can be illuminated in a discussion and appreciation of Dolly's music and life"--