Record Exchange Boise

Reviews:

''Halos & Horns'' is a studio album by Dolly Parton, released in May 2002. It was her 39th album. - Wikipedia

After 40 years of hits that jumped from country to pop and back again, Dolly Parton doesn't get any radio play. The woman who was once in the vanguard of country pop sounds too traditional for today's country stations. Her last two albums for the small Sugar Hill label both won Grammys, The Grass Is Blue for Best Bluegrass Album and "Shine," a track from Little Sparrow, for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, but like the Grammy winning traditional country blockbuster O Brother, Where Art Thou?, radio has refused to play them. Halos and Horns probably won't fare any better, either at country radio or your local megalopolitan record mall, but it's another treasure chest packed with the retro-Parton prefers "timeless"-vibe that made The Grass Is Blue and Little Sparrow such delights.

One thing that sets Parton apart from the pack is her songwriting talent, and unlike many of country music's aging stars, she can still write a solid tune and a heart tugging lyric. Twelve of Halos and Horns' 14 tracks are Parton originals, including "Sugar Hill," a saucy song about youthful seduction that features the Bluegrass Gospel harmonies of The Kingdom Heirs, "These Old Bones," a song about a psychic old woman and her daughter crammed with the over the top sentimentality Parton does so well, and "Raven Dove" a prayer for peace and forgiveness. Needless to say, Parton's vocals are superb throughout, playful one moment, full of untamed emotion the next. Like Parton, the backing musicians ably leap from bluegrass to pop without a hitch.