Okay... so I never did post what I wanted to post last weekend. It was a huge file with all sorts of Dolly gospel goodies on it. (I promise... I'll post that soon.) My computer is all screwed up right now and it's not zipping the files the right way. And if I continually try and upload it and it doesn't work, I'm bound to chuck this thing out the window.
But I digress.
I did want to post something, though.
And so I figured that I'd share a few versions of one of my very favorite Dolly songs.
(It's actually third on my top ten of all time. "Jolene" tops the list with "My Blue Tears" coming in second. And if you really want to know, "The Bargain Store" is number four and "Down From Dover" number five.)
"The Grass Is Blue" is, to me, a typical Dolly lyric. It's a weeper of a song that packs a pretty heavy emotional wallop. And it's extremely clever as well. Ms. Dolly is able to take what could have been just another sad old heartbroken tale and rework it into something... just absolutely brilliant.
Starting off the file is Ms. Dolly's commentary on the song. It sheds some insight into what a spectacular writer she is and how the song came about. I always love to hear any type of insight whatsoever on anything she writes. I hope you'll enjoy it.
There are four different versions of the song as well.
The first is from the Washington D.C. stop on the "Halos & Horns" tour. It's similar to the "Live & Well" version but I enjoy it and the quality is very good. The next is from Merlefest, the huge bluegrass esque festival that happens every year in North Carolina. Dolly was the headliner that year and the crowds were the biggest the festival had ever seen. It's a fantastic version, though please disregard the talking that goes on at the beginning and a little bit during. (I cannnot imagine talking through a Dolly concert.)
The third is from the UK promo CD that came out last year to support the UK leg of her European tour. It was a free CD distributed through The Mail and contained 11 new tracks. (6 live ones and 5 newly recorded.) These are the songs that are showing up as bonus tracks on different versions of "Backwoods Barbie" from different stores. But "The Grass Is Blue" was available by pre-order from iTunes only so it's technically not commercially available. This is also the version of the song that Ms. Dolly has been performing in concert for a few years now. It's done on piano and it's simply the highlight of every show where I've seen her do it. (And as a side note... I really do hope she keeps it in her setlist and throws "The Lonesomes" in on piano as well.)
And the last version of the song is the duet that Dolly did with Norah Jones at the 2003 CMA awards. One word... orgasmic. I was tempted to include Norah Jones' rendition of the song from the 2003 tribute album but that is still commercially available. Nonetheless, I recommend that version of the song to EVERYBODY. It's absolutely fantastic.
Alright... I figured I'd post a quick one tonight. And I will work out the kinks and post something more substantial sometime this week.
Here's the link for the file.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/j3ipc2
And get to livin'!
But I digress.
I did want to post something, though.
And so I figured that I'd share a few versions of one of my very favorite Dolly songs.
(It's actually third on my top ten of all time. "Jolene" tops the list with "My Blue Tears" coming in second. And if you really want to know, "The Bargain Store" is number four and "Down From Dover" number five.)
"The Grass Is Blue" is, to me, a typical Dolly lyric. It's a weeper of a song that packs a pretty heavy emotional wallop. And it's extremely clever as well. Ms. Dolly is able to take what could have been just another sad old heartbroken tale and rework it into something... just absolutely brilliant.
Starting off the file is Ms. Dolly's commentary on the song. It sheds some insight into what a spectacular writer she is and how the song came about. I always love to hear any type of insight whatsoever on anything she writes. I hope you'll enjoy it.
There are four different versions of the song as well.
The first is from the Washington D.C. stop on the "Halos & Horns" tour. It's similar to the "Live & Well" version but I enjoy it and the quality is very good. The next is from Merlefest, the huge bluegrass esque festival that happens every year in North Carolina. Dolly was the headliner that year and the crowds were the biggest the festival had ever seen. It's a fantastic version, though please disregard the talking that goes on at the beginning and a little bit during. (I cannnot imagine talking through a Dolly concert.)
The third is from the UK promo CD that came out last year to support the UK leg of her European tour. It was a free CD distributed through The Mail and contained 11 new tracks. (6 live ones and 5 newly recorded.) These are the songs that are showing up as bonus tracks on different versions of "Backwoods Barbie" from different stores. But "The Grass Is Blue" was available by pre-order from iTunes only so it's technically not commercially available. This is also the version of the song that Ms. Dolly has been performing in concert for a few years now. It's done on piano and it's simply the highlight of every show where I've seen her do it. (And as a side note... I really do hope she keeps it in her setlist and throws "The Lonesomes" in on piano as well.)
And the last version of the song is the duet that Dolly did with Norah Jones at the 2003 CMA awards. One word... orgasmic. I was tempted to include Norah Jones' rendition of the song from the 2003 tribute album but that is still commercially available. Nonetheless, I recommend that version of the song to EVERYBODY. It's absolutely fantastic.
Alright... I figured I'd post a quick one tonight. And I will work out the kinks and post something more substantial sometime this week.
Here's the link for the file.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/j3ipc2
And get to livin'!
