Customer Reviews

My Tennessee Mountain Home

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This album has been issued on CD only once before as an import. But for the first time we have it here in the States. This album is a concept album about Dolly's childhood growing up in the sticks of Tennessee. On the surface the album would seem to be a little too self indulgent, but the concept works very well. The album is like looking thru a photo album with Dolly from her birth up to her getting her first record deal. For an artist who at the time hadn't really hit huge, at least not like she would for another four years, this album was a gamble, A gamble that pays off. It's a great country album. Only one bonus track included with this one, which makes sense since it is a concept album. The track "Sacred Memories" was recorded during the same sessions as this album but released on a later album.

Length:: 1:24 Mins

This 1973 entry in Parton's catalog has previously been available as part of an import two-fer (winningly paired with the following year's "Jolene"), but this is the first domestic reissue. Parton was a star on the Porter Wagoner show in the early '70s, but solo recognition was arriving more grudgingly. Her chafing under Wagoner's contractual control didn't help, and her songwriting exhibited a streak of homesickness, starting with the spoken word opener on this LP.

Parton sings lovingly of her parents ("I Remember" "Daddy's Working Boots"), home ("Old Black Kettle" "My Tennessee Mountain Home" "Back Home"), and remarkable neighbors ("Dr. Robert F. Thomas" - the man who brought Parton into this world). The album's homespun sounds form a bookend with 1998's "Hungry Again," particularly in the traditional, acoustic backings. The album's title track is a perfect example of Parton's craft, evoking images so real that you can feel yourself longing for a return to Smoky Mountains you may never before have visited.

The remainder of the album failed to catch on the charts, but Parton's nostalgic and wistful songs are quite charming. The story of her arrival in Nashville, "Down on Music Row," is a a great example (along with the title track and career standouts like "Coat of Many Colors") of how Parton could turn her personal history into memorable, engaging songs. The lone bonus track on this reissue, "Sacred Memories," was recorded during the album's sessions, issued as a B-side, and reappeared on the LP "Love is Like a Butterfly."

Legacy's reissue (along with accompanying versions of "Jolene" and "Coat of Many Colors") fills out the packaging with newly struck liner notes by Chet Flippo and chart and session information. Aside from the title track, this is a more subdued and subtle entry in Parton's catalog and its lack of previous domestic reissue leaves it fresh to many fan's ears. Most of Parton's albums of this era are essential, and this one's no exception. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]

A terrific reissue job by Columbia Legacy on this essential Dolly LP. Great notes, the sound is perfect and the extra cut (recorded during Tennessee Mt. Home sessions) does not detract. Kudos to the label for the Jolene and Coat of Many Colors reissues as well -- the 3 LP's represent Dolly's best songwriting/singing efforts of her career.

You just can't beat Dolly Parton's songwriting,she writes from the Heart.Very true stories put into songs.Dolly Parton can do about anything she puts her mind to. She does whatever she wats,whether it fails or not.She knows what shes doing. Excellent Cd. She can sing with about anyone. She is the Beautiful Songbird of the Smoky Mountains! Erleen

Today's top 40 radio-play country music makes me cringe. THIS is what true country music was, IS and will always be. Dolly can sing, sing, sing. Dolly can write, write, write. Dolly can tell, tell, tell a story. She's taken-on many genres of music, and done them well, but this and bluegrass are where she is among, if not, THE best. To make her even more incredible is the humble person that she continues to be. She is truly remarkable.

To coincide with Dolly's European tour of 2007, there were several CD releases including yet another best of compilation and three twofers (of which this is one) featuring six albums, five of which had never been released on CD while the other had only briefly been available in the early days of CD. Three of Dolly's older albums were also released with bonus tracks (of which this is one) although only the bonus tracks were new to CD, the main albums having already been made available on earlier releases.

Unlike the other two albums re-mastered with bonus tracks (Jolene, Coat of many colors), which contain previously un-released tracks, the only bonus track on this CD is Sacred memories, which isn't even new to CD. Sacred memories, which was actually recorded at the same sessions as the other tracks here, is a great song that first appeared on the album Love is like a butterfly. Along with some other tracks from that album, it made its CD debut on a compilation, Mission chapel memories. My first reaction on seeing the lack of bonus tracks was one of disappointment, since the other two re-mastered albums each have four bonus tracks. Maybe the intention was to stick to the basic theme of the album, or maybe they restricted the album to tracks recorded at the relevant sessions, but I still think that they could have included three tracks from Bubbling over, Dolly's follow-up album to this one, to make up the four.

The songs here mostly take a rose-tinted view of Dolly's early life. Only the revival of an early Dolly classic, In the good old days, serves to remind us of the hardship that Dolly and her family endured. Dolly says in her autobiography that all the neighbors led the same kind of life, so she didn't consider herself poor. Communication with the outside world hardly existed in Dolly's childhood, in a remote location that outsiders never visited, without TV and with a radio that didn't always work properly. In these circumstances, perhaps it's easy for Dolly to sing about the good aspects of her childhood and teenaged years, although she reminds us that she wouldn't want to re-live those days, in the chorus of In the good old days.

For the rest of the album including Sacred memories, the title track really sets the scene and typifies the mood although it doesn't actually open the album. It appears halfway through because it was the opening track of the second side on the original vinyl release. The opening track here is actually Dolly's narration of her first letter home after her arrival in Nashville. The only other track about the start of her musical career is the one that closed the original vinyl album, Down on Music Row, in which a few facts are conveniently overlooked. I guess it wouldn't have pleased RCA if Dolly had mentioned that Fred Foster on Monument that gave Dolly her first real break. Still, it's only a song and it sounds great despite not being lyrically accurate.

I love the songs about Dolly's childhood although, reading the liner notes to the compilation, Mission chapel memories, it's clear that is not a universal opinion. Nevertheless, even the writer of those notes acknowledges that this is a highly regarded album, although he continues in the same sentence to suggest that the album nearly destroyed Dolly's credibility. Talk about contradicting yourself. Despite the strange comments and the inevitable omission of any tracks from this album, it's a great compilation.

For those who like to hear about the good times in Dolly's childhood, this is a great album. Dolly pays tribute to her parents (I remember), her father again (Daddy's working boots), her doctor (Dr Robert F Thomas) and more generally remembers her early life in such songs as Old black kettle, Wrong direction home, Back home and Better part of life. This remains my favorite Dolly Parton album.

Originally a poor seller when it was first released in 1973, but crtically acclaimed, "My Tennessee Mountain Home" has through the years become one of the best Dolly albums ever. This marks the first North American release of the CD. It's amazing and comes with the original album being repackaged with the liner notes and photos and comes with the bonus track "Sacred Memories" that was dropped from the album and later added to Dolly's 1974 LP "Love is Like A Butterfly". There are also some rare photos from 1970 that were taken during the recording of Dolly's "A Real Live Dolly" LP. A must for any true country fan and Dolly fan. One of the best Parton compositions "Down on Music Row" is included here as well. Chet Flippo also has added some new liner notes. A perfect CD!