NashvilleGab - Country music news and Nashville celebrity gossip

Dolly Parton gives fans a free song to benefit the chestnut

 

Dolly Parton has recorded a new song for the American Chestnut Foundation and is offering it as a free download to fans. 

If you visit ACF.org, you can download "Oh, Chestnut Tree, a song dedicated to the American chestnut.

According to ACF, "the American chestnut tree was an essential component of the entire eastern US ecosystem. A late-flowering, reliable, and productive tree, unaffected by seasonal frosts, it was the single most important food source for a wide variety of wildlife from bears to birds. Rural communities depended upon the annual nut harvest as a cash crop to feed livestock. The chestnut lumber industry was a major sector of rural economies. Chestnut wood is straight-grained and easily worked, lightweight and highly rot-resistant, making it ideal for fence posts, railroad ties, barn beams and home construction, as well as for fine furniture and musical instruments."

Reddit takes down Dolly Parton's Imagination Library website

Usually when you hear that readers of a website such as Reddit have taken down a website it's something bad like a hacking or something that wipes a site out. 

That's not the case here. 

I'm an avid reader of Reddit (the good stuff, not the creepy, wanna poke my eyeballs out stuff) and this morning I noticed that there was a story on the front page of Reddit regarding Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. The heading read:

TIL that Dolly Parton thinks it is so important that every child has books to read that she started a foundation that will mail children a free age-appropriate book every month from birth to their 5th birthday.

That was pretty cool in itself, but then later I came across a story over at Network World regarding the fact that Redditors were so impressed by the story that they actually crashed Dolly's Imagination Library website when too many people tried to visit. 

Gotta love that.

The Imagination Library later tweeted about the incident.

Thanks @reddit! Although we admit our tech team nearly ran away, lots of new babies are now getting #freebooks! twitter.com/dollyslibrary/…

— Imagination Library (@dollyslibrary) February 13, 2013

Great to see that news of Dolly's good work is reaching enough people to crash their site. 

Did Dolly Parton really flash Roseanne Barr in a restaurant?

Well here's a story to LOL uncomfortably at.  

Comedienne Jennifer Saunders was recently being interviewed by British talk show host Graham Norton when she told a fun story about how Dolly Parton once flashed her and Roseann Barr to show off her tattooed breasts. 

Saunders says, "I was in a restaurant with Roseanne Barr. Dolly was there and talking about tattoos. She winked at us and said, 'This will go no further' and then undid her top and there were her t**s and she has the most exquisite tattoos - angels and butterflies.

"They are the most divine, Titian like drawings... I kid you not. Although I did wake up in the morning and thought that couldn't have happened. But it did. It was one of the strangest evenings ever."

I wondered about the truthfulness of this story so I went looking to see if there was anything else on the net about. Funny enough, just about a year ago Roseanne Barr visited the always funny Craig Ferguson and told a story about how Dolly Parton has pretty pastel tattoos all over her body. She doesn't mention anything about Dolly's breasts or how she knows that Dolly's tattooed all over, but with two people saying very similar things about Dolly being a tattooed lady, I'm going to go ahead and say, "Cool."

You can actually see one of Dolly's tattoos in this picture which just happens to be on her cleavage. 

 

 

Dolly Parton: Self-Help Book One Step Too Far

Recently I discovered that Dolly Parton was planning to release a self-help book entitled ‘Dream More: Celebrate The Dreamer In You’. It has not (as far as I know) been actually advertised as a self-help book, but all the signs are there. The description on Amazon states that “Expanding on the hugely popular graduation speech that Dolly Parton gave at the University of Tennessee, Dream More explores the personal philosophy this much-loved artist has forged over the course of her astonishing career as a singer, songwriter, performer and philanthropist.” Sounds fair, Dolly has often written inspiring songs and the last chapter of her 1994 autobiography (‘My Life And Unfinished Business’) is essentially that of a self-help book, and although I don’t like books like that it is a good read and there are some real truths in there. I have my qualms about an entire book of it but that’s nothing compared to the alarm bells that went off in my head when I read the following sentence of the Amazon product description: “In this thought-provoking book, Dolly Parton draws on her childhood experiences growing up in the hills of eastern Tennessee and her life as the iconic performer she is today, as she encourages us all to.”

My heart sank. I have been a huge fan of Dolly for nearly six years and it didn’t take me long being a fan to be able to recite her ‘life story’ (I suspect some may well be an exaggeration but that’s an argument for another day) backwards. She tells a good portion of it in every live show she does. She tells a succinct version in every interview she does. She writes extensively about it in her autobiography (which is a good read by the way and I would highly recommend it, especially since she wrote it without a ghost writer) and it carries the bulk of biographies of her. I have heard it so many times that sometimes I feel like I’ve lived it myself! I’m nowhere near the most dedicated fan, however, and I’m sure there are thousands of fans who have heard it even more than I have and are starting to get a little sick of hearing it in detail. It makes me sad to say this but it feels like an excuse to write her autobiography again, but just be a little more reflective and analytical about things, and try and say some inspiring helpful things. Don’t get me wrong, I would love an updated autobiography from Dolly of the last eighteen years since her original one was published, I bet there’s a lot to say about those years. But this just seems to be an excuse to say the same old things again, and if I wanted that I’d just reread what she wrote in 1994.

Dolly Parton's new slot machines revealed

 

I had a story a couple of days ago about Dolly Parton getting her very own slot machines that would be hitting casinos in the very near future.  Now we have our first glimpse of those games. 

There are three different versions, the Nine to Five Spinning Reels, Dolly Parton Video Slots, and Two Doors Down. Again, what makes these games so unique is not just Dolly's image on the machines and her input on their design, but that they actually offer a jukebox (no other slot machine has this), which allows players to select a song from 10 of Dolly's most popular that will play while they play.

Kind of makes me wish I lived somewhere that actually had casinos. 

 

 

Dolly Parton pulls out of proposed water park (from the mailbag)

Dolly Parton – Iconic singer, songwriter, musician, actress and philanthropist – announced today that she will no longer be associated with the previously planned water park in Nashville.

"Gaylord makes decisions that they feel are good for their company and their stockholders and I have to make decisions based on what is best for me and the Dollywood Company," said Parton. "Governor Haslam, Mayor Dean, and all the folks in government have been great to work with. I really appreciate their support through this process."

"I think everyone knows I love Nashville and I hope the work we've already done will spark more family entertainment in Nashville," Parton added.

"Like" Dolly on Facebook (http://facebook.com/DollyParton), and Follow her on Twitter (http://twitter.com/Dolly_Parton) for the latest information!

Dolly Parton slots ready to hit the casino (from the mailbag)

The Queen of Country comes to the casino as Dolly Parton brings her chart-topping hits to both video slot and five-reel spinning reel games. Dolly Parton® Video Slots, along with Two Doors Down and Nine to Five Spinning Reels, feature interactive juke-box-style song selections, big bonus action and front-row concert experiences all with Dolly cheering the player along.

Dolly stated, “As you know, I love doing lots of different things and this is the most different thing that I’ve done so far. I’m very excited to be working with IGT with my very own video slot machines and five reel spinning reel games. Wanna play? Well, come on!”

Good Morning America goes extreme at Dollywood

Watch More News Videos at ABC | 2012 Presidential Election | Entertainment & Celebrity News

"GMA's" Cameron Mathis decided to take his life in his own hands and headed down to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to take a ride on Dollywood's newest thrill ride, the Wild Eagle.

Video of this rollercoaster literally gives me heart palpitations. I mean this is the same roller coaster design that ripped the arms and heads off of test dummies in the UK.  

Sorry but I value my arms and head a little too much to risk it. I'll stick with the kiddie rides if I ever get the chance to head to Dollywood.  

Dolly Parton costume could cost 'Toddlers & Tiaras' mom custody of daughter

There's trouble brewing in the lipsticked and hairsprayed world of toddler pageants. 

Little Madisyn "Maddy" Verst is a now-6-year-old little girl who has appeared on the popular TLC (un)reality show 'Toddlers & Tiaras'. You may remember her even if you don't watch the show because she appeared on the cover of People magazine a while back with the headline "Gone Too Far?"

Well Maddy's mom and dad are currently locked in a custody battle and one of the dad's fuels for his fire is a Dolly Parton costume the little girl wore on the show that featured a padded bra and butt. 

A Kentucky court-appointed psychologist is siding with the father, Bill Verst, saying that the child’s participation in beauty pageants, and in particular the Dolly Parton and a "sexy" cop outfit, are damaging to the girl and is recommending that the parents share temporary custody with the father getting primary residential custody.

Lindsay Jackson, the girl's mother, told the media on Saturday, “If [the judge decides] that Maddy needs to live with her dad because she does pageants with me, then that opens the door for any parent to challenge anybody on activity that a kid does, period,” Jackson said. “We could really open up Pandora’s Box to set a precedent all over the world. What if years ago Gabby Douglas’ father said, ‘She’s not going to be a gymnast. She’s not going to move away from home and practice gymnastics because I won’t allow it,’ and he and Gabby’s mother got into a fight? We wouldn’t have gold medal winners, we wouldn’t have Miss America, we wouldn’t have Miss USA.”

The next hearing is scheduled for August 31. 

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to start issuing Braille books for visually children

I love Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.  Not sure why I'm so drawn to it, it just gives me a warm feeling anytime I read anything about it. 

Anyway, Dolly's book program is going to expand from providing books in digital audio format for visually impaired children to actual books written in Braille, which definitely seems better for teaching a blind child the love of reading rather than just listening to books.  

According to NWTN Today, for the last year, Dolly has been partnering with American Printing House for the Blind to issue many of the books available in the Imagination Library in audio format but now five titles in the Library will also be available in Braille including “Old Bear and His Cub,” “A Mud Pie for Mother,” “Roar of a Snore,” “Read to Tiger” and “Llama Llama Misses Mama.” 

If you are the parent or legal guardian of a visually impaired child and would like to sign up, head over to http://www.aph.org/dpil/special to fill out an application.