Parton's first mainstream album in 17 years appeals to all her fans without sounding insincere or compromising. The title track, a fiddle-and-piano colored two-beat that's a sympathetic bit of autobiography, belies her campy doll-like cover pose. The debut single "Better Get to Livin'" is a page from her own upbeat canon, and when she's downhearted in the steel-guitar weeper "The Lonesomes" and the cocktail lounge arrangement "Made of Stone," she draws on the influence of earlier country queens like Kitty Wells and Patsy Cline. Parton's vocal tones remain equally pure, distinctive, and captivating over grinding six-string power chords as she blasts out Fine Young Cannibal's "Drives Me Crazy." She's especially affecting on a faithful rendition of Smokey Robinson's "The Tracks of My Tears." The bottom line is that Parton's one of America's greatest enduring vocal stylists, whether she's revisiting her roots in bluegrass or making commercial hay. --Ted Drozdowski
