It was a humid night in July, and the patrons of Atomic Clock Brewing looked at me like I’d lost my mind when I asked if they knew who Dolly Parton was.
Of course they knew Dolly: her charity, her looks, her vibes. Some mentioned songs like “Jolene” or “9 to 5.” Others called her an angel. But no one knew that this converted 1920s-era municipal garage in Durham was once home to the small record label that released some of her most critically acclaimed music.
Parton’s bluegrass albums in the late ‘90s and early 2000s were head-turning masterpieces that have been credited with revitalizing the career of the everything-to-everyone icon who died Tuesday at age 80. Parton told musicologist Lydia Hamessley that Little Sparrow was the “purest thing she has ever done,” while musicians have praised Parton’s bluegrass as deeply influential. What is mind-blowing today, as fans around the world mourn her death, is that Nashville’s country music establishment had written Parton off as commercially unviable at that time…