One of the many Dolly Parton Thoughts I’ve been carrying around this week: Oh, the marvelous ways her voice could transform!

Parton, who died this week at the age of 80, was a mega-multi-hyphinate: singer and songwriter, sure, but also actor, writer, businesswoman, philanthropist, theme park owner. She was remarkable not just in how successfully she did each of those things, but in how seamlessly she combined them into a single persona. Nowhere was that synthesis more evident to me than in her voice, and the ease with which her speaking could become singing.

It’s not uncommon for a musician to have two voices: one for singing, and one for speaking. How many times have you heard an interview with a band’s lead singer and been surprised at how ordinary they sound? There are, of course, whole schools of holistic vocal coaching based around a the concept of “one voice.” The resulting rangey, resonant mixed-voice style—call it voice actor voice—is one reason so many cartoon and video game characters sound like the same person. But singing musicians are often less polished, and more likely to have a wider gulf between their speaking and singing selves. Not so with Parton.

My first Strong Songs episode about Dolly was in the show’s early days, back in 2019. I focused on “I Will Always Love You,” an exceptionally strong song with a more interesting backstory than I knew going in. As the lore goes, Parton walked into Porter Wagoner’s office in 1973 and simply sang him the song, her way of telling him she was quitting his TV show and going her own way. (Can you imagine?? I would have given her anything she asked for.)

I grew up with Whitney Houston’s pyrotechnic 1992 cover, recorded for The Bodyguard soundtrack. For years, it was the only “I Will Always Love You” I knew, as was true for many people my age. In Houston’s version, she belts out the bridge: “And I wish you JOY! And, happiness.” Heartache and defiance shimmer in the powerful arcs of her voice.

While working on my episode about the song, I went back to Dolly’s recordings and realized I had been unaware of the very different way she originally approached that bridge. Rather than singing, she spoke the words: “I hope life treats you kind, and I hope you have all you've dreamed of. And I wish you joy and happiness. But above all this, I wish you love.”

It’s the same in both versions Parton recorded—the 1974 original from Jolene, and the 1982 Best Little Whorehouse in Texas version, which ends with an extra couple of lines: “I love you. I will always love you,” she says, her voice breaking. Each time she speaks that bridge, it is with real, gentle emotion. For a moment, she is speaking directly to us. And then, just as quickly, she’s singing again, carrying us into the final chorus.

Shifting between speaking and singing is common in folk music; heck, it probably goes all the way back to the bardic tradition. One can easily imagine a traveling singer, with their lute or lyre, alternating between a spoken story and a sung verse. But Parton’s graceful ease with the technique stands apart, at least to my ear.

Another of my favorite examples of her speaking-singing style is “Applejack,” the second track on 1977’s New Harvest… First Gathering. Check out the album version or, even better, watch her perform it that same year with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt:

Like a lot of things when it comes to Dolly, such a lovely musical maneuver can become a metaphor for the woman herself. The appearance of effortlessness is, after all, usually directly correlated with the actual amount of effort required. Whether speaking or singing, Dolly Parton was always performing, and always in control.

And it worked, man. It was magic. What a beautiful thing, to be told a story, and then sung a song, in the same breath.

A few other updates, since it’s been a minute since my last newsletter and a lot has happened in Strong Songs world. Last month, we put on Strong Songs Live, and it was incredible! A ton of people came out, the band was amazing, the singers all crushed it, and I had the best time ever. If you were there, I hope you did, too.

My talented filmmaker friend Kevin Jardin brought his camera and filmed the whole thing, and he and I are working on a few different videos of the show. I’ll be able to share them before too long; I still have to mix the recording from the board, and it’s a big undertaking. For now, I’ll link to some images from the night for any who haven’t yet seen them - a mix of stills from Kevin’s footage and photos shot by Miri of MirifotoPDX.

I’ve also run a few new Strong Songs episodes since my last newsletter. In July, I covered Annie Lennox’s blues-inflected banger “Little Bird,” off of her 1992 solo debut Diva. This month, I returned to Queens of the Stone Age to dig into the equally blues-inflected “Song for the Dead,” from their 2002 masterpiece Songs for the Deaf. I’m proud of both episodes, and I hope you’ll give them a listen. (Also, just a reminder, members of the Strong Songs Patreon get monthly bonus episodes going deeper on each song, so go sign up if you’ve been thinking about it!)

A little tease before I go: Next week, I’ll be announcing an ALL NEW PROJECT unrelated to either Triple Click or Strong Songs. I am very excited about it! It’s going to be a lot of fun, and it will involve a new theme song.

I’ll leave you with this pic of Appa, who has taken to hanging out by the studio door whenever Emily is working in the yard. It’s nice and cool down here, so I get it.

Take care, and keep listening-
~KH
8/29/26 - Portland, Oregon