Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton will be released October 12, 2020. Thanks to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader’s Copy.

When I was seven years old, my parents went to the movies. This was a huge deal. My parents didn’t go to movies. My six brothers and sisters and I did not go to the movies. So the event was burned into my memory. The movie they saw: 9 to 5, starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. My mom couldn’t stop talking about the film to her friends and family on the phone, and that’s how Dolly Parton entered my life.

In the 1980’s, Dolly Parton had a variety show that I watched religiously. A year or two later she released Trio with Emmylou Harris and Linda Rondstadt, who I already loved as an artist. I wore out my cassette by the time Trio II was released a few years later. Just recently, I caught Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings series on Netflix and added Ultimate Dolly Parton to our music collection. I’ve always enjoyed Dolly’s self-deprecating sense of humor and appreciated her great charitable acts.

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If you are looking for a straight biography of Dolly Parton, Unlikely Angel isn’t it. To be sure, there’s plenty of biographical information on Dolly, and the author interviewed her subject via email and got many written responses which are included in the text. And there are tons of stories included. But this is the study of Dolly’s prolific songwriting career. And if you thought that Dolly was just a dolled-up singer and actress, this book dispels that myth pretty quickly.

“I’ve created this and played it up–the makeup, the whole persona. I’ve overexaggerated and made things worse. But I’ve had a good time doing it, and it all came from a serious place: a country girl’s idea of what glamour is. But this isn’t all I am. It’s not even most of what I am. Hopefully, people can see beneath the hair to know there’s a brain, beneath the boobs to know there’s a heart, and behind all the other stuff to know there’s some talent.”-Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton has written more than 3,000 songs and over 450 of them have been recorded since she first started recording in the late 1960’s. Hamessley contends that Dolly has three principles that define Dolly’s songwriting:

Dolly takes songwriting seriously
She thinks her songwriting is based on instincts
Dolly says her songwriting is “a God-given gift”
As stressed throughout the book, Dolly Parton wants to be seen as a songwriter first and foremost. All the other stuff, her singing, her acting, Dollywood, her fame, takes second place to the act that brought her all her success.

Unlikely Angel breaks down the songwriting process, the inspirations, starting with Dolly Parton’s impoverished upbringing in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, her years with Porter Wagner, and her solo career from country artist, to pop crossover artist, to bluegrass artist and beyond. Even with plenty of quotes from Dolly and other sources, this is quite the technical read if you’re not a fan of actually making music. You’ve really got to be a musician to understand some of the stuff presented.

I appreciated the stories behind Coat of Many Colors, Jolene, and I Will Always Love You, among many other songs the book dissects. But if you’re looking for a straight biography of Dolly, I’d stick to her 1994 autobiography.

Unlikely Angel, The Songs of Dolly Parton, Lydia R. Hamessley

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre: Entertainment, Biographies & Memoirs

My bad, I didn't fully read description, just Dolly, Biography and Memoirs...and as a Dolly fan I thought it would feature more of her life, her journey into music. It does do that to a degree, but is more focused on analysing the music and writing ( I was shocked she was so prolific – didn't realise quite how many songs she'd written).

As a businesswoman too she was a shrewd lady, recognising that to get the music she wanted to make rather than the producers wanted her to do she needed to play a long game. She was clear sighted about where she was going eventually, but it took her several detours. I so admire her persistence, when so many others would have given up, and she deserves all credit for that, her hard work, sticking to her ideals.
I enjoyed the more personal sections, about Dolly and her life, her upbringing, imagining little Dolly touring the US in the van with her uncle, belting out songs from that tiny frame. I loved reading the inspiration for her songs, the people she was influenced by, but the rest wasn't really a book I would have chosen if I'd taken the time to read properly. I'm not really interested in taking apart songs, analysing them, just in listening to them and a brief look at what inspired them.

For those who love that side of things, the technical dissection of her music then its perfect. Just not me. Another one of those reader taste issues, not a book writing issue.


Stars: Three, a good book for the right reader, but for me it was just OK.

ARC supplied by Netgalley and publisher

As if I didn't love Dolly before, I certainly do now. I love getting additional information on her extensive catalog of songs, a behind the scenes look.

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this and give my honest opinion.

This was a really fascinating book. I am not a huge fan of Dolly Parton, other than liking some of her biggest hits like “9 to 5”, “Here You Come Again”, and her duets with Kenny Rogers, so I enjoyed reading about her background but I really enjoyed diving deep into the meanings of her songs.

The book starts out with a synopsis of Dolly’s life and then a chapter by chapter deeper look into her songs. It is actually a very technical book and probably best suited for a musician, songwriter, or a hardcore Dolly Parton fan. Although, I am none of those and really enjoyed it. I especially liked the stories behind the songs “Coat of Many Colors”, “Jolene”, and “I Will Always Love You.”

My main takeaway from this book is that Dolly is an extremely talented songwriter. Thank you to Netgalley for the providing me an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I found this an impressive and extensive deep dive into the discography of a classic American singer and songwriter. I am only slightly aware of a few select Dolly Parton songs and I think this hindered my ability to fully understand the significance of her songwriting collection considering I was only familiar with only a few select songs.

I would recommend this book, but only if you have a grasp and awareness of her song catalog. This is not a straight forward biography. You are given snippets of her life throughout specific time periods, but the bulk of the book dissects songs in a professional technical manner, that may be too complicated for the average fan of Partons. To get the best experience of reading this book you should have more than a general awareness of Dolly Parton’s music collection.

I did enjoy reading about Dolly’s life and relationship with writing about various topics. I was excited to read about how inspired she is by life and her various interpretations of her experiences, which are woven into her lyrics.

This is an informative book that is interesting to follow along and see the changes an artist develops, and grows throughout time. It is a fun way to explore and learn about an artist.

This is without doubt an amazing book. I am sure that even the biggest Dolly Parton fans will find something new in this book. This is not just a biography this is like a Dolly encyclopedia. Lydia R Hamessley must have spent a lot of time researching and writing this book and it should be on the bookshelf of any Dolly fan.

Not only will Dolly fans enjoy this but songwriters and other music professionals will also love this book. The songwriting process is covered in great detail and I must admit that some of that was way beyond my understanding giving a listening outline for some of her tracks and looking at tonic chords, etc.

Going to have to start a tip jar and save up for the hardback book to have on my bookshelf as this is a book I would use as a great musical reference for Dolly's work

I love Dolly Parton and her music. This book talks about all her songs and what she has gone through. While reading this book, I realized i had already read the one she written herself. I love this one, because it talks about everything. If you look up Dolly Parton now you will see she has accomplished so much more. I am thankful that netgalley and the publishers let me read this in exchange for an honest review.

This book takes a detailed look at Dolly Parton's life choices. In a thoroughly researched tale, Lydia Hamessley lays out Parton's good will and her good works. All the good songs are mentioned and the book ties in the life behind the lyrics in a simple and straightforward way. If you enjoy all the minute influences of a superstar, you will enjoy this account.

I love Dolly Parton for as long as I can remember. She is an icon. This book is a really great and fascinating read, that gives an insight to Dolly's songs. A must read for any fans.

Lydia R. Hamessly's Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton was both more and less than I expected. I chose it because I was hoping it would have some info about Ms. Parton and about her music in general. I was not expecting a technical treatise.

There was a wealth of information about Ms. Parton, her history, and her music, which was delightful and an easy read. There was also an analysis of many of her songs, and how she creates music, which was fascinating, even though it was a bit much to slog through at some points.

Although the publisher classifies this as part of "The short, readable books in the Women Composer series," the book - at 296 pages - is slated on my Kindle as requiring 6 hours and 31 minutes to read.

I think this book is ideal for actual musicians or serious fans of Ms. Parton, as so much technical information is included. While this is a boon for those in the industry, it should, perhaps, be noted on the book's page that this is not intended as a casual biography or memoir.

All in all, the book is enjoyable, but it is not a casual read by any means.

I have been in love with Dolly for as long as I can remember. This book brings her to life in the best way. She is truly an American Icon and I loved learning about her life and music. If you are a fan of her Netflix show, and want more this book is it!!!

My favorite part was that the author takes you through Dolly’s songs verse by verse with a breakdown of what it means.



Thank you NetGalley and University of Illinois Press for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I have read the first part of this book ,but found it challenging to read on my kindle. I wanted to look at the appendix when comments made during the introduction, but it is not easy to access in this format. The book felt that it was very much about the author and her encounters with Dolly and her musical preferences. I think I expected it to be more of an autobiography than it is. Unless you are interested and understand music I think it will not be of interest to you.

I had such high hopes for this book but sadly it wasn't interesting to me. Despite Dolly being an extremely talented and well known country artist, I didn't get that from the book. I was about 10 pages in and I had to stop reading it because it was the authors opinion and her take on Dolly. I understand that this book is about Dollys music I just wish it went into detail about how she got to where she was in 1964. What made her want to get into music? Who was her inspiration.

I am a huge Dolly Parton fan. I simply adore her, yet I cannot seem to get into this book. I've picked it up so many times and each time I set it down I have to force myself to pick it back up. It feels extremely repetitive and dry. I'm giving up. Life is too short to read something you don't enjoy. I hate writing bad reviews so I won't be reviewing this on goodreads.

This is an interesting read. It wasn't what I thought it was, which was to tell about Dolly's life through her music. It does that to some degree, but this is more of an actual technical look at her writing and music. Music-y people will really enjoy reading this. I liked the blips about Dolly's life--her songwriting processes, inspiration, and influences, but being that my music education ends with being able to simply read it, I really couldn't appreciate the dissection of her score and songs. I think this is a really neat way to write about Dolly Parton though; it feels authentic and genuine. Hamessley really wanted us to get to know the whole real, true Dolly.

Sorry, too much like a text book for me. As much as I like Dolly this book could not keep my interest.
It might appeal to others but I struggled to get past the first few chapters.

The layout of this book made it too hard to read on Kindle, this I was unable to finish it. It appeared to just be an issue with formatting and layout so hopefully it would be resolved in a printed version

Dolly Parton is a national treasure, and she must be recognized as such. People underestimate Dolly's genius, and this book helps by exploring her songwriting. What makes Dolly so special is that she's not just an entertainer: she's also savvy at business, a philantropist, and a prolific songwriter. I hope many read this to learn more about her prowess.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

Anyone who knows me well knows about my love of Dolly Parton. This was a great insight into the stories behind the songs, some I knew and some were surprising.

Sweet Dolly...I really enjoyed this book and I was able to shed the stress of todays world by reading her story! I learned a lot about Dolly's career ad her personal life~
I will be purchasing this book for my sister ad niece for they too are big Dolly fans!!