Country music legend Dolly Parton keeps it pedestrian and sweet on her new album, Pure and Simple. Parton focuses on pared down arrangements in favour of an album of love songs and simplicity. It is a Parton “roots” recording of sorts.
Pure and Simple gets part of the equation right. Ballads and drama-spiked subject matter are Parton’s calling card and she starts off strong here with the title track. To hear that iconic voice pitching songs high against a finger-picked guitar can get a body thinking about beers and tears but aside from a few flashes of maudlin brilliance, there’s not too much to catch the heartstrings here.
The love song premise is promising and Parton delivers the goods but she holds back on the backwoods drama that makes songs like Jolene compelling and irresistible. Pure and Simple is Parton’s “aw shucks” fairy tale version of the love ballad and this glaring optimism works against some of the material on the recording. Clichés are a given and Parton’s unabashed mastery of the trick turns songs like Kiss It (and Make it Better) and Tomorrow is Forever into hardcore tearjerkers that can’t be denied.
To drive the point home, she muses, Elvis-like, on spoken word laments on heartbreak. It’s a classic move and the record runs on that track – Parton following the form of a certain tradition, albeit a maudlin one.
Dean Gordon-Smith is a Vernon-based musician who reviews the latest music releases for The Morning Star every Friday.
