Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton was in a period of transition when she recorded the two albums featured on this CD, one of a series devoted to highlights from her back catalog. Originally released in 1976, All I Can Do was Parton's final album working with mentor Porter Wagoner, who co-produced with Dolly, and it finds her dipping her toes into country-rock arrangements and a more polished approach than her previous work. However, Parton's sunny but grounded personality still shines through and -- even more importantly -- her vocals and songwriting are both in superb shape, especially on "When the Sun Goes Down Tomorrow" and the title cut. The following year's New Harvest...First Gathering was the first salvo from Dolly after parting ways with Wagoner and hiring a new management team with an eye toward higher mainstream visibility. The result is an album that seems to have one foot in Nashville and the other in the land of adult contemporary music, but Parton, who produced the sessions, showed plenty of respect to Parton the artist, and while some cuts work better than others, it's a strong, emotionally mature set that rises above a potentially high schmaltz level with superb vocals and songs dealing with grown-up love in both realistic and heartfelt fashion. (And significantly, the most clearly country tune on the album, "Applejack," is also the least impressive.) These two albums were a stretch for fans of early masterpieces like Just Because I'm a Woman and Jolene, but also showed that Parton could take her talent in a number of different directions, and they sound great individually and as a set. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide