Dolly Parton's America
Dolly Parton's America
WNYC Studios & OSM Audio
The Only One For Me, Jolene
36 minutes Posted Nov 19, 2019 at 9:00 am.
0:00
36:10
Download MP3
Show notes

One of Dolly’s most iconic and successful songs is “Jolene,” a song that, at first listen, is about a romantic rival trying to steal her man: a prime example of the classic “cheating song.”  But some see it as flipping a popular country music trope on its head. This idea takes shape when Nadine Hubbs, a professor at the University of Michigan, writes a fourth verse to “Jolene," which makes us reimagine Dolly's songs in entirely new ways.