Dolly Parton Scores Highest-Charting Album Ever w/ “Blue Smoke”
Photo: Dolly Parton / Sony Masterworks
Yet another sign that the appeal for traditional country and country music’s legacy artists is alive and well.
Dolly Parton released her 49th overall studio album Blue Smoke on May 13th, and the record has earned Dolly Parton a distinction she’s never experienced in her decorated, historic career. Blue Smoke marks Dolly’s highest charting solo album in her career’s history, debuting at #6 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart. Surprisingly, this is the first time ever that Dolly Parton has reached the Top 10 of the Billboard 200 with a solo release. The closest she’s ever come to a Top 10 album was 1981’s 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs that reached #11. Her collaborative album Trio with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt also reached #6 in 1987.
Blue Smoke came in at #2 on the Billboard Country chart as well, beating out albums from artists such as Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line. 42 of Dolly’s 49 albums have reached the Top 10 on the dedicated country chart, including six #1 albums during her storied career.
“I am glad that people are enjoying the music from my new ‘Blue Smoke’ album. It feels great to be in the Top 10,” Dolly Parton says. “It’s always an honor to know the fans spend their hard earned money on my music. Thanks everybody!”
Dolly Parton joins Johnny Cash who also made chart history recently with his posthumous release Out Among The Stars. Cash came in at #3 on the Billboard 200, and #1 on the country chart in early April. And unlike some new releases that have glittering debuts only to fade quickly, Cash remained at #9 on the Country Albums chart last week—six weeks after the original release date. Older, traditional country artists can still factor heavily into the album charts despite a lack of radio play or mainstream promotion because of the loyalty of their fans, and the propensity of those fans to purchase full albums instead of cherry-picking singles or streaming the release, resulting in greater revenue for the artists and labels.
May 21, 2014 @ 11:09 am
Way to go Dolly
May 21, 2014 @ 11:13 am
This is a helluva good record ..GREAT writing ,amazing production quality , Dolly’s voice is as pure and as flawless as a bed of snow throughout …she’s never sounded better .
KUDOS to all involved with this site . It has inspired me in the few weeks I’ve been hanging around..So much so that I wrote this lyric earlier today and I’d like to share it . ..
This Ain’t No Country Song
I guess I’ve got the perfect life
The perfect job , the perfect wife
Got it made in the shade no doubt about it
It makes me wanna sing and shout it
So I wrote a tune on my coffee break
Asked the record man ” well whadaya think ”
He sat and listened and shook his head
Then he looked at me and here’s what he said ….
‘Son this just ain’t no country song
Nobody’s gonna sing along
No wild ass kids on a cold beer run
No backwoods rednecks cleanin guns
No tailgate dancin’ or startin fights
No all night parties ..not a truck in sight
You ‘d best just pack that gu-itar home
Cuz son this just ain’t no country song”
Well I don’t know much about records n stuff
But I’m a little stubborn when my back is up
And when that the record man went and shot me down
I was bound and determined to stand my ground
Now there’s a lotta singers like Keith or Tim
Who sing about how sweet life is
If those stars could see my words were true
That record man might change his tune
‘Son this right here’s a country song
The kind we sang where I come from
No wild ass kids on a cold beer run
No backwoods rednecks cleanin guns
No tailgate dancin’ or startin fights
No all night parties not a truck in sight
Now THIS kinda country’s what I grew up on
Son this rights here’s a country song “
May 21, 2014 @ 11:19 am
Sturgill Simpson just missed the country album top ten and sold approx. 5,500 copies which is good for around 60 on the all encompassing Top 200.
May 21, 2014 @ 12:24 pm
She’ll always be smokin’ hot.
May 21, 2014 @ 5:06 pm
Yes… This please me greatly. Now I wonder if the sale are mainly older folks across the board or just country fans young and old. I can’t imagine the Luke Bryan set really going for a Dolly Album at this point but who knows. Or maybe classic country fans are just SO excited to see some real country by a true country artist that then just went crazy. I don’t really care personally I am just glad to see her back and big.
May 21, 2014 @ 8:06 pm
Well I don’t her album on Billboard’s 200 chart on their website. I see bloody awful Hunter Hayes and Luke Bryan in the top 10, though.
May 21, 2014 @ 8:08 pm
Same for the country albums chart. Maybe it was last week she was on the chart I can’t find her anywhere.
May 21, 2014 @ 8:11 pm
I don’t know the exact timeline on the release of the info, but they don’t update the website immediately with the new week’s chart, I think to entice people to purchase the print copy. It will be up there in the next day or two.
May 21, 2014 @ 10:38 pm
They highlight the top 10 on the Top 200 Album and the Hot 100 singles charts every Wednesday and then they release the full new charts on Thursday morning.
May 21, 2014 @ 9:53 pm
Congratulations to Dolly–but these high chart placements by older artists are due largely to the fact that young people don’t buy albums anymore.
Back in the Garth heyday, when artists like Dolly and Cash were shut out from the charts, top-tier country artists were regularly going multi-platinum and even second-tier contemporary country artists like Mark Chesnutt and Pam Tillis were scoring platinum-selling albums.
I don’t think Dolly’s sales are higher now than they were then–I suspect they’re LOWER–but suddenly, they’re enough to go top-5.
May 21, 2014 @ 10:29 pm
Of course her sales aren’t as high as they were then. Nobody’s are. But still head to head in the present-day environment, this chart placement is significant. And of course it has to do with the fact that Dolly Parton fans buy albums, and many young fans don’t. But this is not a reason to discount this distinction, it’s the reason it is so significant. Labels can make more money off of these older artists because they’re the last bastion for moving physical product at high margins, instead of streaming albums at pennies on the dollar. Don’t think Scott Borchetta recognized this when he decided to start NASH Icons with Cumulus.
May 24, 2014 @ 10:59 am
It should also be noted however that while many young fans don’t buy albums Hunter Hayes is was #1 on the country charts last week and was #3 on the all genre chart so unless older folks are into him… But he did drop this week so maybe it was a rush of fangirls.
May 22, 2014 @ 10:56 am
So the living Barbie doll has given up her career as a pop singer? Loved her in the Porter Wagoner duo days but since the early 70s she’s been busy killing country music (save for that tepid “bluegrass” album perhaps.)
May 22, 2014 @ 2:12 pm
That first bluegrass album came out way back in 1999.
I’m pretty sure most of Dolly has released since then has been country and bluegrass stuff.
May 22, 2014 @ 2:53 pm
Little Sparrow was a great record. The new one is also fantastic. It’s not reaching for any grand statement but it is perfect barnstromin’ two-steppin’ country album!
May 22, 2014 @ 2:56 pm
Also this speaks to the whole women doing more traditional country than the men these days. Maybe she can turn the runaway train around.
May 22, 2014 @ 3:39 pm
Wow, I am really impressed with Dolly’s vocals on this track. Seems like time has hardly diminished her vocal abilities at all.
Also, I love the title of this record. “Blue Smoke” in the song is the name of a train, but it is ultimately a reference to the Great Smoky Mountains, and the bluish-grey fog that hangs over the mountain range, looking from the distance like plumes of smoke.
According to Wiki, this phenomenon is caused by “the vegetation exhaling volatile organic compounds,” whatever the heck that means. Sure is beautiful though!
May 22, 2014 @ 9:31 pm
I want to see the Smoky Mountains, thanks for the description. Dolly is always beautiful, too.
May 24, 2014 @ 11:19 am
and she did it without going bro country, or turning into the dreaded rap monogenre 🙂 very good