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Today was certainly beautiful – a nice refreshing breeze, sunny but not too hot. "My Tennessee Mountain Home" is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Dolly Parton. Using imagery from her rural childhood in Tennessee , the song served as the centerpiece of her 1973 concept album My Tennessee Mountain Home. It was released as a single in December 1972, and reached number 15 on the U.S. country singles chart. Partongrew up in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, as one of 12 children.
(He received a sack of cornmeal as payment.) "Down on Music Row," tells the story of her first days in Nashville as she tried to get a record deal. In the song, she offers thanks to legendary guitarist Chet Atkins and producer Bob Ferguson who helped her. Largely a concept album about her childhood in rural East Tennessee, the album begins with a recitation of the first letter Parton wrote to her parents shortly after moving from her hometown of Sevierville, Tennessee to Nashville in 1964. The final cut on the album, "Down on Music Row", recounts her first days on Nashville's Music Row, trying to get a record deal, and thanking those who helped her along the way, making specific mention of Chet Atkins and RCA's Bob Ferguson. My Tennessee Mountain Home was written and recorded by Dolly Parton in 1973 as a tribute to her childhood memories of growing up in rural Tennessee, but I much prefer Maria Muldaur’s version. Maria Muldaur was an American folk/blues/country singer, best known for her quirky 1973 hit “Midnight at the Oasis.” I remember listening to her in my dorm room and fellow boomers may recognize the album cover.
"My Tennessee Mountain Home" lyrics
She thinks of herself as a "song interpreter," but back in the '80s another country star convinced Emmylou to take a crack at songwriting. The Reverend rants on psychobilly and the egghead academics he bashes in one of his more popular songs. In later years, Parton has used the song "My Tennessee Mountain Home" as something of a theme song for her Dollywood theme park.
So pour yourself a glass of iced tea or lemonade, pull up a chair and have a listen to the best fiddle/banjo chorus ever. The title track became one of Parton's better-known compositions. My Tennessee Mountain Home is one of the rootsiest records of Dolly Parton's career. With its affectionate homages and salutes to her childhood in Tennessee, the record is a direct and moving slice of mountain music that isn't dressed up in cosmopolitan production. Parton wrote every song on the record, creating a loose, musical autobiography with its 11 songs. I remember Maria Muldaur’s “Midnight at the Oasis” as it seemed it was on the radio every time I turned it on back in the first year of college, same time as you.
Dolly Parton
We square danced once in grade school grade 8 which I thought great fun and I could envision people square dancing to the instrumental part. I am frustrated by the prices on everything. My Comcast new charges skyrocketed but that is not something I would get rid of, the landline keeps going up every month or so. I got gasoline the other day and for between 1/4 and 1/2 tank, it was $43.00!
I’ve heard it’s good for bird watching and has a white snowy owl in residence. At the entrance there is a sign which says it’s an example of a Carolinian forest. I just took the picture at the entranceway, it looked very peaceful.
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You'll hear Dolly sing the song as you walk up the steps to visit the replica of her real life Tennesee Mountain Homeinside Dollywood. I admire you stocking up like that for winter. I find I am buying bulk or duplicates or triplicates when things go on sale, as I’m tired of paying those crazy prices. I got 3 packs of paper towels the other day, for $6 as opposed to $9.
A box of M&M (it’s a small chain grocery store of prepackaged foods – one aisle) haddock fish fillets was always $16 and it’s now $22? When I made a comment about the 6 dollar increase, the owner/clerk gave me a lecture about the Ukrainian war and wheat prices etc. ” I think these companies are just gouging people. If it wasn’t Mom’s favorite I would have left it in the store. I find myself shopping the flyers more and more and buying multiples. I hadn’t thought of her in years until I was researching the song history and saw the album cover.
Wagoner, Dolly's singing partner on a string of hit duet albums, said he was the actual producer but Ferguson was given credit due to the label's rules against using outside producers. Genius is the ultimate source of music knowledge, created by scholars like you who share facts and insight about the songs and artists they love. Jo, the woods are actually a picture I took of a woodland trail in one of our big city parks. One of these days I’m going to walk through it, once tick season is over.
The first time Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Bonham and John Paul Jones all recorded together in the studio was when they backed American singer PJ Proby on his Three Week Hero album. My Tennessee Mountain Home is the eleventh solo studio album by Dolly Parton. It was released on April 2, 1973, by RCA Victor. The house pictured on the album cover was the house in which the Parton family lived during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It just reminded me of a summer day….and we don’t have many left!
"Surf City" was recorded by Jan & Dean, but written by Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys. Folk/blues singer Maria Muldaur recorded this for her self-titled solo album in 1973. It was also covered by the Earl Scruggs Revue in 1974, Rose Maddox in 1977, and Norwegian-Swedish singer Elisabeth Andreassen in 2005. Bob Ferguson, who wrote the hit country tunes "Wings Of A Dove" and "The Carroll County Accident," is listed as Dolly's producer on all of her RCA albums through the mid-'70s, but Porter Wagoner disputed his credit.
And this last tank of gas used was mostly errands and running back and forth to the grocery store. I have tried to check their ads as well to get the best deals for stocking up. I have another trip, maybe two to make, but they are easy to lug in and not the canned items and oatmeal which were heavy and my mouse looks like a cyclone hit it! But, when it is snowing or raining, I won’t have to go out. The paper towels jack-up in price is ridiculous – they know everyone needs to buy paper towels so they can get away with it.
When writing her 1973 concept albumMy Tennessee Mountain Home, she drew on her experiences of growing up poor in rural Appalachia. "My Tennessee Mountain Home" serves as the centerpiece of the record and highlights memories of Parton's, such as holding hands on a porch swing, watching fireflies, and walking home from church with those you love. In fact, the cover ofMy Tennessee Mountain Homealbum is the house that Parton and her family lived in throughout her childhood. The album is home to other great tracks that tell the story of Parton's life. She wrote "Dr. Robert F. Thomas" in honor of the mountain doctor who delivered her in her her Tennessee cabin.
Like you, I don’t like screaming and loud songs. My mom heard Hank Williams, Jr. once and said “that’s not country – I sing better than that, his father would roll over in his grave.” I like Willie Nelson as well – not every song but the softer ones. I liked the old Kenny Rogers too and his songs with Dolly Parton as well. Dolly Parton’s slow songs were okay, if she didn’t jazz them up too much and make them loud. "I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues" by Elton John was written for the sister of actress Rene Russo.
Dolly Parton herself re-recorded the song on her 1994 live album Heartsongs. Parton released "My Tennessee Mountain Home" as a single in 1972, and it reached No. 15 on the US Hot Country Singles chart. The song now serves as a theme song for her theme park Dollywood.
It might also have something to do with the crickets and fireflies which always herald August to me and the waning days of summer when evening shadows fall. She had a very clear distinctive voice, much better than Dolly Parton although she wrote the song. I couldn’t find a free photo of a porch swing – you know the kind that is hanging with chains on a southern veranda, so I just used mine. Same with the honeysuckle, and the woods pictures which are from a woodland trail in one of the parks here which I intend to explore some day when tick season is over. I just took the picture at the entrance to the trail as it seemed very peaceful and it seemed to fit the song.
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