Communities across the United States have declared September 25 as Dolly Parton Day, and Stories That Define Us are joining in their efforts. To celebrate Dolly's life and legacy, we are giving away free digital downloads of our tribute album, with 12 original songs and 2 music videos. Sign up below, and the album will arrive in your inbox at on September 25, along with a subscription (six issues annually) to Roots & Reflections, our family history e-newsletter. 

Few entertainers, if any, have touched as many lives, across as many generations— and in as many ways, as Dolly Parton. I’m the product of parents from Southeast Louisiana who loved country music: Hank, Johnny, Willie, Waylon, Patsy, Loretta, Tammy, and Dolly. Every Saturday afternoon, my Daddy had the television on WAFB-TV Channel 9 at 4:30 p.m. for The Porter Wagoner Show. Like millions of Americans from the Deep South, that’s how I was introduced to Dolly Parton. I fell in love with her before I began kindergarten, and, as an adult, I've lived my life by asking a very simple question: "What would Dolly do?"

In the summer of 1988, Steel Magnolias was being filmed in Natchitoches, Louisiana. I saw it as my opportunity to meet her. When my parents asked me why I was going to Natchitoches, which was 170 miles away, I told them I was having dinner with Dolly Parton. When they insisted I tell them the truth, I repeated that declaration. When I arrived back home three days later with photos of my friend, his college roommate, and me standing outside a Chinese restaurant in Natchitoches with Dolly, they couldn’t believe it. (I share that story in the song called “Dinner with Dolly.”)

For decades, Dolly has reminded us that where we come from matters, that our stories are worth telling, that kindness is a strength, that diversity and originality should be celebrated, and that circumstances do not have to determine destiny.

She has entertained millions. She made us laugh and she made us think. She has written songs that somehow feel as though they belong to each of us personally. But perhaps even more importantly, she has used her extraordinary success to make life better for other people.

That spirit is what inspired this collection.

A Tribute to Dolly Parton — Stories That Define Us: Deluxe Edition is an independently created musical celebration of Dolly's life, values, storytelling and remarkable legacy.

These are original songs created especially for this tribute. These songs celebrate one of the world's most beloved storytellers and values: family, perseverance, generosity, imagination, humor, faith in others, and the belief that a child with a book can dream beyond the circumstances into which he or she was born.

John Michael Lockhart
Publisher, Stories That Define Us

TRACK LISTING

1. What Would Dolly Do?
2. Rhinestones and Rain
3. Put a Book in Every Mailbox
4. Bridges, Not Walls
5. The Princess and the Queen
6. Dinner with Dolly
7. Rainbow on the Ridge
8. Our Honky Tonk Angels Are Gone
9. Two Kinds of Grace (Angel mix)

10. BONUS TRACK — Bridges, Not Walls (Alternative mix)
11. BONUS TRACK — What Would Dolly Do? (Bright Light edit with Alternative lyrics)
12. BONUS TRACK — Rhinestones and Rain (Alternate lyrics)

13. MUSIC VIDEO — What Would Dolly Do?
14. MUSIC VIDEO — Our Honky Tonk Angels Are Gone

This is an independently produced tribute project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or produced by Dolly Parton, Dolly Parton's representatives, or Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. This offer also includes a one-year subscription to our bi-monthly family history newsletter, Roots & Reflections. Unsubscribe any time.