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Hey readers, Chris Douridas is taking over the intro to this week's Music Insider, followed by a piece from Anne Litt in this week's Now Spinning section below.
– Ale
On Monday morning, I was in the dentist's chair getting a tooth fixed that had broken over the weekend. When I got to the car and popped on the radio, Novena was playing the original version of "I Will Always Love You," Dolly Parton's 1974 masterpiece that she wrote as a respectful send-off to her longtime musical partner Porter Wagoner. I was delighted to hear the song, which I've always felt was a song of female empowerment and one I'd often point to as one of the greatest songs ever written. But I didn't think anything more of it until Novena followed it with "Islands In the Stream," Dolly's 1983 duet with Kenny Rogers.
Hearing two Dolly songs back to back sent me reeling. I knew this meant the worst. Then Novena opened the mic and relayed the news. I was shattered.
Whenever anyone asked me, "Who were your all-time favorite interviews on KCRW?", the answer was easy. Dolly.
In the early 2000s, I hosted and produced Sessions@AOL, the nascent online interview and performance series. We shot over 400 sessions with the biggest artists in the world for America Online, and I would repurpose select interviews to air on my KCRW radio show at the time, New Ground. In August of 2002, we recorded a conversation with Dolly in a ballroom at the Universal Hilton. AOL would broadcast the video version, and KCRW would air the audio on my show.
In the car, listening to Novena, I started texting our team at KCRW to see if we could unearth that conversation. In Dec 2024, two weeks before the Palisades fire took my home of 30 years and everything in it, our archivist Myke Dodge Weiskopf came by my house to pick up several boxes of my interview archives. He was on a mission to catalog and digitize all of the station's archives. While he rescued hundreds of my conversations over the years, many were still lost in the fire. My hope in this moment was that the Dolly interview wasn't one of them. Minutes later, Myke shared the bad news. The Dolly interview was nowhere to be found.
My next move was to reach out to my old team at AOL, most of whom I hadn't spoken to in over 20 years. They all remembered fondly the session we did with Dolly, and every one of them scrambled to see if they could find a copy. As of this writing, we're still searching.
So for now, you will have to take my word for it.
She was luminous. She was incredibly generous with her time, so grateful for the life she was blessed with, and just as irreverent, smart, funny, and kind as we all knew her to be. And absolutely stunning.
Dolly was a model global citizen. The kind of person we should all strive to be. And we're all very lucky to have shared our time on earth with her.
And if anyone reading this has a copy of that interview, please let us know.
Screenshot from Chris Douridas' 2002 Sessions@AOL interview with Dolly Parton, to our knowledge the only surviving record of that conversation.
Now Spinning On My Turntable Sinead O'Connor - "Dagger Through the Heart"(Dolly Parton Cover)
Nobody wrote better about heartbreak than Dolly. She recognized emotions when we couldn’t name them ourselves, and understood how it felt for a knife to pierce our chests — and stay there.
To that end, I’ve been particularly struck again by "Dagger Through the Heart," from her third album in her bluegrass series Halos & Horns (2002). And it’s likely because the following year, a tribute album was released, Just Because I’m A Woman: Songs Of Dolly Parton. Buried deep on the album is a version of “Dagger” by Sinead O’Connor.
While my takeaway from Dolly’s version is more about the songwriting, annoyed optimism, and legendary session players, Sinead’s version is ominous. It begins darkly, with a guitar. She sounds like she’s made of glass about to break. By the time the fiddle and mandolin kick in, she’s getting angry — really angry — her rage spitting out:
Oh, I know I'm a fool to keep stayin'
When you've made hurtin' me such an art,
Tossed around like a used box of crayons,
It's like a dagger through the heart
Listen to Sinead’s version and let me know what you think. Don’t get me wrong, I love Dolly, and she’s pretty darn mad in her version as well, but somehow when the song ends, I know she’ll be ok. Ultimately, Sinead will too. In each of their versions, they just process differently. The early aughts angst of Sinead and her vocal interpretation has come back fresh and big for this girl. Listen closely and see how it hits for you.
Dolly forever.
xx, Anne
More Music Moments
Courtney Barnett “Live on KCRW”
Traditionally, Courtney Barnett has never needed much to make a room feel electric. A guitar, a stellar rhythm section, and a few perfectly placed deadpan observations will usually do the trick. Back again at KCRW’s Annenberg Performance Studio for a very special Live On KCRW performance, Barnett is in particularly fine form — loose, loud, and clearly having a great time.
Peanut Butter Wolf: A Selection of Deep Cuts Influenced by the Prince-Era Minneapolis Sound
This month on Peanut Butter Wolf’s show, it’s a selection of deep cuts influenced by the Prince-era Minneapolis sound. He dug through his crates of over 50,000 records, as well as digital crates of tons of unreleased music, to curate this set of artists influenced by the rock icon. Check out the full show on our website.
And finally…Vintage24 and Dance24 are now available on the web too!
Up until recently, our streaming channels Vintage24 and Dance24 were only available on the app. We are excited to announce that you can now tune in to them on the web too. Vintage24 is a 24/7 online music stream produced by Myke Dodge Weiskopf that turns the dial way back to KCRW’s analog days, featuring deep cuts, classic tracks, and archived DJ/Live shows. Dance24 is also 24/7, produced by DJ SiLVA, and streams house, disco, global, and more dance music.
Upcoming Music Events
It’s that time of year again! Come out and join us for School Night at Echo Park Rising, channeling the spirit of the community for the enjoyment of live music, independent art, local business, and good times. We’ll be hanging out at the Sticky Rice stage all weekend (Fri, 28th, Sat, 29th, and Sun, 30th), and a huge thanks to MakeOutMusic and Sticky Rice for helping us get this incredible lineup together. In addition, Dada Echo Park will be brimming with rockers, DJs, crooners, the whole bit, on Saturday and Sunday. We can’t wait to see you this weekend in the sun!
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