AIN'T NOBODY'S FOOL: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton, a fine book about an amazing woman

AIN'T NOBODY'S FOOL: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton
MARTHA ACKMANN
St. Martin's Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$15.99 ebook, preorder now for delivery on 30 December 2025

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: A larger-than-life new biography of country music legend and philanthropist Dolly Parton.

In Ain't Nobody's Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton, Martha Ackmann chronicles the life of an American Original. From her impoverished childhood in the Smoky Mountains to international stardom as a singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, and philanthropist, Dolly Parton has exceeded everyone's expectations except her own. During a time when the Beatles set the standard for contemporary music, Dolly appeared on a local country music television show that her high school classmates thought was pure cornpone. The day after her high school graduation, she boarded a bus for Nashville, but record executives turned her down. One said her voice sounded like a screech owl.

When Dolly finally got her foot in the door, her talent and focus catapulted her to the top of country charts, the pop world, and movie stardom. Yet her success came at a price. Shunned by many in Nashville who saw her ambition as a betrayal of her country music roots, Dolly became the target of death threats, lawsuits, and a judge who threatened to throw her in jail. She nearly collapsed on-stage and later succumbed to depression that pushed her to the brink, but she refused to be counted out and came back stronger than ever developing Dollywood, the amusement park that became the economic engine of East Tennessee, and founding the Imagination Library that provides free books to children around the world. Her philanthropy to health organizations led to creation of the Moderna COVID vaccine. And, finally, she returned to her roots, recording bluegrass albums that became the most celebrated of her unparalleled 60-year career.

Ain't Nobody's Fool is a deep dive into the social, historical, and personal forces that made Dolly Parton one of the most beloved and unifying figures in public life and includes interviews with friends, family members, school mates, Nashville neighbors, members of her band, studio musicians, producers, and many others. It also features never before seen photographs and unearthed documents shedding light on her family's hardscrabble life. More than anything, Martha Ackmann's fresh and animated new book proves Dolly Parton knows just who she is and she ain't nobody's fool.

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My Review: Author Ackmann, she of The Mercury 13, knows how to present the stories of women in powerful positions without triumphalizing or trivializing their struggles, obstacles, and successes. Miss Dolly deserves no better biographer.

As a longtime fan of the woman, and one who came to appreciate her musical talents despite not much liking the genre she's performed in for decades, I enjoyed my time spent here. It was a lot like renewing my acquaintance with someone once dear who's been out of touch. A couple years ago I reviewed an illustrated book about her career, DOLLY PARTON: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life, with a similar degree of pleasure.

What I most enjoy about reading the life and times of Miss Dolly in this book is the context, the societal setting of her triumphs and her struggles. The way the book is written is to offer a fan a history lesson sweetened by a favorite celebrity's life experiences. This is, to me, a strength...I'm alway interested in why and how before what. The greatest stregth of the read is the very clear-eyed assessment of the whys and hows...overcoming misogyny to make a huge mark in the music and entertainment industry, overcoming depression and isolation to turn notoriety into lasting fame...all while using her celebrity to serve, to help, to lift others higher than they could have reached on their own.

It is inspiring, humbling, enlightening.

What an ordinary person would've done when faced with those obstacles is...surrender, collapse, give up. It's a mark of Miss Dolly's indomitable spirit and drive that she collapsed but rebounded; failed but got up to do it again, only better; got rejected, but went where she was wanted, instead of curling up in a ball and crying until the cows came home. It's not luck alone that makes someone successful, and this book makes that so very clear you can see it from space.

As a biographer of a living person Author Ackmann took full advantage of the mountains and mountains of information our modern age makes available. The notes are copious, but you can ignore them if you like. I myownself was delighted to see them because the force of nature that is Miss Dolly deserves all the ink spilled on her doings in television production, literacy programs, the music and theme-park industries...the list is impressive.

What you won't get in this work is celebri-tea. There's nothing breathlessly revealed, no salacious little gossipy nuggets. This is a biography about a very serious, focused, driven person whose successes span more than sixty years and counting.

It is respectful. That is refreshing, warranted, and welcome.

I left the read more uplifted than entertained. Again, to me, a feature not a bug. i think it's a great Yule gift for your Dolly fan, for anyone who feels ground down and needs uplift without treacle, for someone who admires women's success stories.

Pretty much anybody not into toxic masculinity, then.

DOLLY PARTON: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life, perfect for the Dolly superfan I know you know

DOLLY PARTON: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life
TRACEY E.W. LAIRD (ed.)
Epic Ink
$24.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 5* of five

The Publisher Says: Dolly Parton: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life is a beautifully illustrated celebration of a timeless icon who has shaped what it means to be a superstar.

Explore 100 remarkable moments in the extraordinary life of Dolly Parton with this illustrated retrospective of her most amazing achievements.

Everyone’s favorite country music star and American icon, Dolly Parton, has accomplished incredible things in her life, from releasing the hit “I Will Always Love You” to creating a nonprofit for children. This beautiful volume will take you on a journey through Dolly’s life. Look back on her star roles, hit songs, and philanthropic aspirations, all accompanied by photos from throughout the years.

Some of the notable moments you will find include:

At 13 years old, Dolly graced the stage at The Grand Ole Opry, easily the most prestigious country venue in Nashville

Dolly’s start in show business: Dolly launched her first country album, Hello, I’m Dolly, in 1967

Dolly’s rise to superstardom: her famous song “I Will Always Love you” hits the country music charts

Classic movie moments from 9 to 5 to The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas to Steel Magnolias

The creation of her incredibly popular resort and theme park, Dollywood

Dolly’s philanthropy efforts and her $1 million donation for COVID vaccine research

And so much more!

Dolly Parton: 100 Remarkable Moments in an Extraordinary Life is a stunning tribute to your favorite all-American icon.

Each book in the 100 Remarkable Moments series is a stunning tribute to a different pop culture icon, visually chronicling 100 extraordinary events that define their legacy. Interviews with friends and colleagues, and over 100 magnificent photographs, combine to create an illustrated retrospective of achievements and contributions readers of all ages will enjoy.

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My Review: If you hate her music...think she's a crap actress...believe COVID vaccines are a hoax...you should still revere Miss Dolly. She created The Imagination Library, distributing books free to its 2.8 million (and counting) registered children in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and Ireland...with intentions to expand to even more countries.

I, for the record, think she never got the credit she deserved as an actress, love her music, am grateful as hell for the COVID vaccines I've gotten that she helped fund, and think the Imagination Library is the crowning achievement of a long lifetime of making a positive difference in the world.

Think that's just hot air? I am far from the only person to think very, very highly of Miss Dolly, and the interviews collected by Editor Tracey Laird (a professor of music at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia; the author or editor of four books, and has contributed a chapter on “Country Music and Television” to the collection The Oxford Handbook of Country Music) come from every moment of the past sixty years Miss Dolly's been in the public eye.

This is definitely an illustrated gift book, make no mistake; but it is also a wonderful, involving overview of the life and times of an American icon. The casual country-music fan, the Dolly superfan, and the serious reader of lives of businesswomen (though this is vastly less thorough on that subject than UNLIKELY ANGEL: The Songs of Dolly Parton (q.v.) will all find a lot to enjoy in this book. If I hadn't already read it, I'd be asking for it for Yule this year.

So, since most of y'all will buy it as a gift to yourself or others because of the photos, let's take a look:

Beautiful book about a beautiful soul. Yule gift that only a Grinch wouldn't love.

UNLIKELY ANGEL, the songwriter whose performance-art career you might've heard of

UNLIKELY ANGEL: The Songs of Dolly Parton
LYDIA R. HAMESSLEY
University of Illinois Press
$14.95 ebook editions, available now
Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: The creative process of a great American songwriter

Dolly Parton's success as a performer and pop culture phenomenon has overshadowed her achievements as a songwriter. But she sees herself as a songwriter first, and with good reason. Parton's compositions like "I Will Always Love You" and "Jolene" have become American standards with an impact far beyond country music.

Lydia R. Hamessley's expert analysis and Parton’s characteristically straightforward input inform this comprehensive look at the process, influences, and themes that have shaped the superstar's songwriting artistry. Hamessley reveals how Parton’s loving, hardscrabble childhood in the Smoky Mountains provided the musical language, rhythms, and memories of old-time music that resonate in so many of her songs. Hamessley further provides an understanding of how Parton combines her cultural and musical heritage with an artisan’s sense of craft and design to compose eloquent, painfully honest, and gripping songs about women's lives, poverty, heartbreak, inspiration, and love.

Filled with insights on hit songs and less familiar gems, Unlikely Angel covers the full arc of Dolly Parton's career and offers an unprecedented look at the creative force behind the image.

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My Review: I was a teen in the 1970s, when Miss Dolly was really gaining fame. In my social circle, such as it was, country music was not the first choice of listening on the car stereo. We ran to Rick Wakeman and Electric Light Orchestra and show tunes. (Drama fag here, if you're wondering.) As I, almost alone among my friends, had much-older sisters, I'd hear things overlooked by the pop-pups. Joni Mitchell wasn't big among them, but my sister gave me her old copy of Hejira when she moved, starting a love affair with Mitchell that's lasted to this very day. Then came the day she played "I Will Always Love You" and we laughed our snobby selves silly! "She sounds like a 45 played at 78," I commented, and got an approving laugh from the older audience. But that's a beautiful song, and if one is even a little bit susceptible to sentimental love poems, it's a gripping story. It's been remade and made into a hit in every decade since its first release in 1974.

Now, I can't even imagine anyone over ten years of age, not from a place that has no electricity, will not know who Dolly Parton is. So I will spend no time explaining her. Still, on the off chance you've never heard of Miss Dolly, go here.

All done? Good. Now that I'm all the way sure that you know the basics, let's us have a come-to-Jesus about the parts of Miss Dolly you've been ignoring, were foolishly dismissive of (like me), or were unaware of. The lady acts and performs and sings. But she IS a songwriter. "I Will Always Love You", written to mark the end of her early and formative loving partnership with Porter Wagoner (man charted eighty-one singles in his life, betcha most people reading this blog never heard of him!), is in the American Songbook by virtue of it ubiquity and popularity with singers and audiences alike.

Author Lydia Hamessley is a musicologist, a scholar of Southern Appalachia's musical heritage. She is a thorough academic, and that is not bad thing because her subject here isn't the media star Dolly Parton!!! but the creative dynamo songwriter behind the entertainer. Many thousands of songs have come forth from Parton's pen. Many hundreds have been recorded by herself, and many other artists. (By the way, did y'all know Miss Dolly wrote a song called "Backwoods Barbie"?!
"Don't let these false eyelashes lead you to believe
That I'm as shallow as I look,
'cause I run true and deep"
This is the same smart businesswoman whose public persona uttered the deathless aperçu, "You'd be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap!" and variations thereon, in countless interviews.)

Oh, sorry. Anyway, Author Hamessley's text is academic in purpose and execution, so I won't lie and say it flowed past my eyes like limpid creek-water down a holler. Miss Dolly wrote an autobiography for you, if that's what you're looking for; I wasn't, and I asked for this book because I wanted to know about the creative, and also the businesswoman behind the persona.

And that is precisely what I got. Say hallelujah and bring the jubilee!

In Author Hamessley's (overlong; I did say she was an academic!) Introduction to the book, she wrote this:

Two of Dolly's comments have been foundational for my work and analyses of her songs. First, "I can't stop writing songs. That's what I mean—I am so serious. If people really knew how serious I was about my music." Second, when Dolly set out on her solo career she asserted, "I'm saying a lot more in my songs than a lot of people may know. Even the simplest of my songs, I've got really deep feelings inside of them."

The fact is that this↑↑↑right here is the beating heart of Unlikely Angel, this is the thing that you're going to get in the case studies and the anecdotes: Dolly Parton is no more "just" a simple country gal who boobed her way to the top of a killer cutthroat business than she is a cold, calculating manipulator with steely discipline and rampageous ambition. She's all that, and she's more. The producer of her first solo album, Hello, I'm Dolly, (the Broadway-based story behind this is another brick in the foundation of my love for Miss Dolly!) said of her "All the same things put together made something different this time."

So Author Hamessley set out to unravel, in nine songs, one in a chapter..."In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad)," "Coat of Many Colors," "My Tennessee Mountain Home," "These Old Bones," "I Will Always Love You," "Just Because I'm A Woman," "Me and Little Andy," "Light of a Clear Blue Morning, and last but not least "There'll Always Be Music"...the creative and cultural arc of a six-decade career built on entertaining others and comforting the needy, loving the good times and defying the hard ones, and generally letting her force-of-nature personality loose on a gobsmacked world. (As an aside, I'd like to suggest to readers of the book that they make a playlist of the songs each chapter focuses on. I did; I listened to the whole playlist all the way through, then put the songs on as I got to a chapter. Sometimes two or three listens during a chapter helped me really get slightly abstruse-to-me points.) It's greatly to her credit that she accomplishes as much pure-D unadulterated entertainment as she does.

What she doesn't accomplish is, I suspect, down to the fact that she's telling a story while making a point. Academia requires a point beyond just spinnin' a good yarn. It's not like she fails to identify multiple very good points in the book...woman-in-business, artist-responding-to-the-world, public/private dichotomy...but she's not humanizing them with gladsome prose. This isn't, I acknowledge, her brief in a book for Univerity of Illinois Press! But it does tend to militate against a truly casual reader's sense of value recieved justifying the pricey purchase. This is something I want to be clear about.

One of the not-emphasized truths about a career containing over 3,000 (!!) songs written is that not all of them are autobiographical. Author Hamessley doesn't bear down hard on this fact. She does, in ways subtle or oblique, make it part of the idea of a chapter. This is all to the good, in my opinion; there's nothing more absurd and prurient to me than the urge to conflate performer and performance.

Steve Buckingham, author of the Preface and long-time friend of Miss Dolly's, gets the last words because I think they say everything you need to know about Miss Dolly and about this book she so generously helped bring into the world:

Over the decades Dolly and I sometimes talked about how the "cartoon" she created (her word, not mine) often overshadowed her talent as a songwriter and musician. We always strove to put the music first. ... Make no mistake, Dolly Parton is a phenomenally gifted songwriter who neverruns out of ideas. Just ask her peers. And don't let the long fingernails fool you!

Author Hamessley, thank you for this delightful deep dive into a world-beating talent's work.