Dolly Parton dazzles Kansas City with her talent, spirituality and wit
This review was originally published on July 31, 2016.
The first wisecrack came after the first song, when Dolly Parton encouraged the crowd of about 10,000 people at the Sprint Center to spend its money on her generously because “it costs a lot to look this cheap.”
No matter what anyone spent on tickets or merchandise, they got their money’s worth Friday night. For more than two hours, Parton and her three-piece band delivered a spectacular show that was relentlessly entertaining, as funny as it was poignant and inspiring, and that showcased her many talents.
Parton’s voice was remarkably strong and clean. Just as impressive was how she showcased her array of talents on at least 10 instruments.
She was backed by keyboard player Richard Dennison, bassist Tom Rutledge (who also played banjo), guitarist and bandleader Kent Wells and a drum machine, which, she explained, cost $47 at Radio Shack and spared her the expense of hiring a live drummer. “And it doesn’t talk back,” she said.
The highlights were many: “My Tennessee Mountain” and “Smoky Mountain Memories,” tributes to her roots; the cover of “I’ll Fly Away,” which closed the first set; “Applejack,” a song about the reclusive mountain man who taught her to play banjo; “The Seeker,” one of several spiritual songs; and the stripped-down, mournful version of “Little Sparrow.”
Parton tossed out a fusillade of memorable one-liners, many of them self-deprecating: “Me having a chest cold is like a giraffe having a sore throat”; “I’m a self-made woman, and I have the (doctor) bills to prove it”; and the line of the night, after someone bellowed “I love you”: “I thought I told you to wait in the truck.”
The second set included a barrage of her best-known songs, such as “Here You Come Again,” “Islands in the Stream” and “9 to 5.”
Parton closed with more inspirational music: “I Will Always Love You,” which she dedicated to everyone in the arena, then “Hello, God/He’s Alive,” a testimony to her faith.
That one reaffirmed what was the evening’s underlying theme, which was no joke: We are all only as good, as she put it, as “the content and the intent of our hearts.”