Dolly Parton is rollin' down the track with her newly released Blue Smoke record, a healthy 12-track set that has the living legend sharing her legacy's body of work in cool, new ways. Whether it is the feisty gospel spin of Bon Jovi's "Lay Your Hands On Me" or the tender "You Can't Make Old Friends," a duet with long-time friend and collaborator Kenny Rogers, Parton is as sharp-shooting as she ever was.

"I usually don't get played on the radio that much anymore. I don't try taylor-make things just for radio," she told reporters at a press event last month of the album. As a whole, Parton wanted Blue Smoke to be a project her fans "would want to hear, something that means something to me."

"I thought, 'well, here at this age, I've been around this long. I've had the chance to do some of everything.' I just wanted to put together a record–I wrote a little liner note in the album where I talked about that I felt like this was just a whole assortment of all the different things I'd done through the years," she described. "I'm a girl of many colors. It was an album of many colors. I think it touched on the bluegrass, the gospel, the mountain and the more pop and rock things."

(more…)