Coat of Many Colors (CD - 1971)

Personnel includes: Dolly Parton (vocals).

Producer: Bob Ferguson.

Reissue producer: Mikek Ragogna.

Recorded at RCA "Nashville Sound" Studios, Nashville, Tennessee. Includes liner notes by Robyn Flans & Dolly Parton.

Digitally mastered by Elliot Federman (SAJE Sound, New York, New York).

Part of Buddha Records' Original Masters series.

Personnel: Dolly Parton (guitar); Dolores Edgin, June Page, Joe Babcock (vocals); Dave Kirby, George McCormick, Billy Sanford, Jerry Shook (guitar); Pete Drake (steel guitar); Buck Trent (banjo); Johnny Gimble, Mack Magaha, Buddy Spicher (fiddle); David Briggs , Hargus "Pig" Robbins (piano); Bobby Dyson (bass instrument); Jerry Carrigan (drum).

Dolly Parton had a number of hits in the late '60s as Porter Wagoner's duet partner, yet solo success eluded her until her 1971 album Coat of Many Colors. The title track was a Top Ten single, and it effectively became her signature song, largely because it was a sweetly autobiographical tune about her childhood. That song, along with its two hit predecessors, "Traveling Man" and "My Blue Tears," were evidence that Parton was a strong songwriter, but the full album reveals the true depth of her talents. She wrote seven of the ten songs (Wagoner wrote the other three), none of which is filler. There isn't really a theme behind Coat of Many Colors, even if its title track suggests otherwise. Instead, it's a remarkably consistent album, in terms of songwriting and performances, but also remarkably diverse, revealing that Dolly can handle ballads, country-rockers, tearjerkers, and country-pop with equal aplomb. And while it is very short, clocking in at under a half-hour, there isn't a wasted moment on the album. It's a lean, trim album that impresses because of succinctness -- with its ten songs, it announced Parton as a major talent in her own right, not merely a duet partner. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Kicking off a long-needed reissue program of some of Dolly Parton's best albums from her late-'60s/early-'70s pure-country heyday, 1971's COAT OF MANY COLORS is perhaps her finest album from this period. The title track, of course, is one of Parton's most essential songs, but here, it's only one of many standouts. Written primarily by Parton herself (with three songs by Porter Wagoner, the mentor she was beginning to overshadow), COAT is almost a concept record. It's a collection of loosely-connected songs based on Parton's rural East Tennessee upbringing, including a slinky twist on the sound and themes of "Son of a Preacher Man" (on the sassy "Traveling Man"); the character study "She Never Met A Man (She Didn't Like)" about the town prostitute; and the downright creepy "If I Lose My Mind," one of Wagoner's trademark tunes of mental illness, this time brought about by a cheating husband who forces his wife to watch his infidelities. The album includes no bonus tracks and minimal liner notes, but the remastered sound is excellent and the songs are indispensable. minimize