Dolly Parton Considering an Album With Jack White

Jack White's a busy man. Spinner reported only this week that the White Stripes mainman was already setting his sights on album number two with side project the Dead Weather, which features the Kills' Alison Mosshart. Now Spinner can exclusively report he's been in talks with another female singer-songwriter (he previously worked with Loretta Lynn) who is definitely not to be messed with.

Nashville legend Dolly Parton, promoting her CD and DVD 'Live From London,' told Spinner she'd been approached by White about the possibility of making a record together.

Asked by Spinner whether she had ever considered doing a project similar to Johnny Cash's 'American Recordings' -- a series of discs where he recorded tracks by the likes of Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails under the watchful eye of producer Rick Rubin -- Parton admitted there had been some interesting recent offers.

"Well, I have been approached [by] ... Jack White," she tells Spinner. "I've thought about doing it with [Jack]. He seems to be a fan but who knows. You never know what I might do. Every now and then I get offered those things, and I know if and when the time is right, I'm certainly not opposed to doing that. I usually have a set notion of where I'm headed with a certain project and what I want to get out of it. But Lord only knows what I might do when I get a chance to sit down and think about it."

Here's hoping.

Read the full interview with Dolly Parton here.

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Mark

I would love to hear what jack White could do with Dolly. I loved her early 2000s folky/rootsy albums, but on her most recent album, she retreated to a slick, by-the-numbers Nashville cookie-cutter sound, and Jack White could certainly infuse new life into her sound.


I'd also love to hear Daniel Lanois work with her. The albums he did with Dolly's pal Emmylou Harris were wonderful.

February 14 2010 at 7:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
laricee

"van lear rose" by loretta lynn is a classic. i'd be very interested by a project involving jack white and dolly parton. dolly is east tennessee's greatest gift to the world.

February 07 2010 at 11:59 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dee

This is a really cool idea, and one that makes a lot of sense. Jack White has a deep and genuine love of the roots of American music, whether it's the blues or country. He's been doing more of that since he relocated to Nashville, so he and Dolly are almost neighbors now; and he seems to really enjoy collaborating with older artists whose influence goes back for decades.

One of Dolly Parton's songs -- "Jolene" -- has long been a standard at The White Stripes' live shows; check out Jack White's powerfully moving performance of this great song at youtube, or on their live concert DVD, "Under Blackpool Lights."

Unfortunately, this potential collaboration might be a bit jeopardized by Dolly Parton talking about it to the press. It's well-known that Jack prefers to keep his projects, including especially collaborations, under tight wraps until he can spring it as a surprised. (In a recent interview with Wanda Jackson, she talks about how she made a mistake by announcing her upcoming work with Jack White, because he wanted to keep it a secret. And a collaboration with Dolly Parton is liable to draw even more advance press.) So I hope that this revelation doesn't kill the chances of this happening though, because it is such a great idea.

I'm not much of a country music fan myself, and I have not followed Dolly Parton's career all that much. But she has done some songs that I really like, and I have always admired her warm and sunny disposition. It's a great character trait to be able to pick yourself up when life knocks you down, and dust yourself off, and find the good humor and cheer to get out there and take it all on again. And I'm a huge fan of anything Jack White does, he's not only a musical genius, but so incredibly versatile. Almost everything he does is a surprise, and almost everything he does turns to gold. Quite a gift, that.

So yeah - let's keep our fingers crossed that this collaboration happens.

February 05 2010 at 11:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Dee's comment
jenny333

ditto that.

February 19 2010 at 3:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply