Consumer Guide Album

Dolly Parton: Rockstar [Butterfly/Big Machine, 2023]
In theory this is the 77-year-old Nashville auteur's admission application to a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that in 2022 voted her in aware that it had more to gain from her than she did from it. Only then, hilariously, she claimed to feel obliged as a country artist to turn them down until she could make the grade by recording some "rock" herself, and this two-hours-plus double album is it--basically, although the concept has some give in it, a duet album where dozens of "rock" totems help her resuscitate their hits. Only problem is, its critical reception has been disgracefully snarky, especially in the U.K. but Stateside too. True, many of these tracks could be called schlocky, not least because the miraculously tolerant Parton is no disrespecter of schlock, not even in the form of Journey, REO Speedwagon, Judas Priest, Peter Frampton, and 4 Non Blondes. I'm not telling you I much enjoy any of these particular selections, although I do love how audaciously Parton stakes her claim on them. But many of the tracks that are more to my taste and probably yours range from good fun to genius. One called "I Dreamed About Elvis" features professional Elvis imitator Ronnie McDowell. Goddaughter Miley Cyrus steps up to pitch in on "Wrecking Ball." Lizzo mounts that mythic "Stairway to Heaven." "Heart of Glass" beats lissomely in a duet with Debbie Harry. Paul and Ringo join in on "Let It Be." With Mick Jagger beset by scheduling difficulties, poor guy, Pink and Brandi Carlile step up to take his place. And the eight-minute solo version of "Purple Rain" is something like spectacular. A-