We journey into the Dollyverse dimension: "Tennessee Mountain Home."Like all law abiding Tennesseans, Jad grew up with the song on a loop. He hadn’t planned to talk with Dolly about it, but much to his surprise, he is drawn into a Tennessee Mountain Trance. The trance opens a portal to many questions about country music, authenticity, nostalgia and belonging. And to a place called Dollywood. We visit the replica of Dolly’s childhood cabin and find thousands of other pilgrims similarly entranced. Along the way, we meet Wandee Pryor, who lived in a Dolly dreamworld as a girl. And also, halfway around the world, Esther Konkara, the self-proclaimed “Kenyan Dolly Parton,” who sings "Tennessee Mountain Home" as an ode to the hills of Nairobi - hills she has not yet left. The Tennessee Mountain home begins to seem like part of a Disney fairytale.But then, Jad and Shima get a call from Dolly’s nephew and head of security Bryan Seaver, who makes an irresistible offer.
Listener supported WNYC Studios this is Dolly Parton's America.
I'm Jad Abumrad.
We're at the third of nine trips into the Dollyverse this episode and the next.
This is where Dolly's story got kind of personal for me.
These two episodes are about a song that really sort of hung over my childhood like a mist Sitting on the.
Front porch on a summer afternoon in a straight back chair on two legs leaned against the wall Watch the kids a playin with June bugs on a strain and chase the glowin fireflies when evenin shadows fall in my Tennessee mountain home Life is as peaceful as a bab.
I feel like this song was always playing in Tennessee, in my Tennessee.
I remember it once being sung at a football game.
Could be wrong, but like, certainly Rocky top.
You'll hear 100,000 people singing it and I'll be totally up front.
Like, you know, as the scrawny, shy Arab kid that hit high school during Gulf War one, I kind of felt on the outside of all that.
So for that reason and many other reasons, when I finally got a chance to sit down with Dolly, I didn't plan on making that song and those stories the focus.
I mean, there are a billion interesting things you can talk about with Dolly Parton and all the Tennessee mountain stuff.
That was on page seven of my notes.
Okay, that was not the top of the list, but then it just kind of happened.
You know me, you just ask and I'll just tell it like as I know it or as I feel it.
What I want you to hear.
We were talking about demographics, about the fact that her fan base in the last decade or so has totally flipped.
It's gone from 80% over the age of 55 to now 80% under the age of 55.
And I was asking her, how do you explain that shift?