Dolly parton, 78, on her emotional new album: 'i just started to cry' | members only

Dolly Parton fans know how she honed her musical chops in a Tennessee cabin with 11 siblings. But the source of her talent stretches way back — to the 1600s in the British Isles. That story

unfolds on the new album _Dolly Parton & Family: Smoky Mountain DNA – Family, Faith & Fables__ _(released Nov. 15).  It’s part family reunion, part music history lesson, as Parton

gathers relatives across five generations to celebrate the traditions that shaped her. Produced by Parton’s first cousin and bandmate Richie Owens, 64, _Smoky Mountain DNA _finds Dolly

performing with aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces — and relatives long gone, thanks to technology that fused her voice to enhanced vintage audio. Parton, 78, sings the 1870 tune “Rosewood

Casket” with her mother Avie Lee, who died at 80 in 2003, and contemporary tunes like bluesy stomper “Not Bad,” with her cousin Shelley Rená. On the spoken-word opening track, she tells

about her banjo-player grandfather Jake Owens. “He played in front of the old windup telephone with neighbors on the party line to listen," Parton says. "He was an early pioneer of

music streaming, don’t you think?” The ambitious project also encompasses 19 recorded performances by Parton and her extended family at Knoxville’s storied Bijou Theatre and a four-part

docuseries that will stream in 2025. She's stopped touring (but may do an occasional performance), and she's busy. Since August, she's released her Dolly Beauty cosmetics

line, published the children's book _Billy the Kid Comes Home for Christmas _and the best-selling cookbook _Good Lookin' Cookin'_, and talked with Jennifer Aniston, 55, about

a potential remake of her 1980 film_ 9 to 5_. Her Tennessee theme park Dollywood celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2025, and the concert series _Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in

Symphony, _with her telling stories on video and 11 city orchestras performing her tunes, opens in Nashville March 20 (where she'll do a cameo appearance). A companion book to the

_Smoky Mountain DNA_ album is in the works. Parton and Owens told AARP about their family collaboration, lineage and the good folks of Appalachia. WHAT SPARKED _SMOKY MOUNTAIN DN_A? PARTON:

We have all these old tapes and records by family members. Richie and I got the idea to record it for posterity — for the family, and for people that love things like the old Carter Family

records. OWENS: After World War II, my grandfather’s sons saw an opportunity to make money instead of just picking on the back porch or in church. They recorded everything at radio stations

to document all their stuff. Dolly said, “We’re starting to lose people. We need to do this.” She’d lost two of her brothers. Courtesy All Eyes Media HOW DID THIS EXPERIENCE AFFECT YOU?

PARTON: When I started singing in my headphones with my grandpa, my mama, my aunt Dorothy Jo, I’d just cry, because it took me back and I’d relive my childhood. There’s a whole lot to be

said about precious memories and what they call "unseen angels." And it was very emotional singing updated stuff with the young ones, thinking about how all this will be carried on

even after I’m gone. WHAT RESEARCH WENT INTO DRAWING UP THE FAMILY TREE? OWENS: We did a lot of work with genealogy experts in the U.K., 23andMe and ancestry.com. Getting down to dental

records. My grandfather told us all these stories, and they turned out to be true.