Live Review: Dolly Parton

In short, Dolly Parton was freakin' awesome tonight – and that was before she even got to her own stuff. Parton did Dylan, Billy Joel and Bon Jovi. She also did the 'Dolly does Dallas' joke, 'Dolly loves the drag queens down the front' stuff and her 'it takes a lot of money to look this cheap' schtick. Playing about seven different instruments during her two sets (each one white and rhinestone-covered, of course), and happily playing and talking a lot about new album, Blue Smoke, Parton also knew that most in the room wanted to hear The Hits, and she happily went back as 'f'ur' as she could go, to the Smokey Mountains of her childhood and the tunes now decades old.

Oh yes, Joelene is still being asked not to take her man, her coat of many colours still stands up for the little kids with big dreams and daggy threads, and of course she had to be working 9 to 5 to finish, before coming back to make sure we knew that I [Dolly] Will Always Love You. The last one was of course the swan song that another swan made her name with (Whitney, Bodyguard, etc), but tonight, Parton's gentle, generous version is still the only one worth having. Her entire approach was gentle, actually, chatting lots and telling stories about growing up poor and with lots of brothers and sisters in the old hills of the US of A, recalling her family with just enough charm to make the clichés melt.

But in between the showbiz there were sweet and genuine moments too, like when she stopped to make sure some little kids up the front had earplugs for 'their little ears – gotta look after those little ears.' Over two hours and two sets there was little time to rest, with an amazing band that clearly left no note unturned. There were a couple of moments that were probably a bit much (Parton miming a version of the Benny Hill theme on a mini sax was, well, weird), but otherwise it was just the show that coming out on a Tuesday required. It's easy to get lost behind the boobs and surgery ('age defying', she called it) and forget what an awesome songwriter Parton is. In terms of not just owning a genre, but defining it, she is absolutely the business.