Dolly Parton’s classics like “Jolene” and “9 to 5” will live on long after her death, but will we get new music from the Queen of Country as well?
Her own interviews indicate there is more to come.
At least one tune is recorded and ready — if you can wait until 2045.
In 2022, Parton explained in several interviews that she had buried a secret song called “My Place in History” in a time capsule at her Dollywood resort in Tennessee, only to be opened in either late 2045 or 2046, around the 100th anniversary of her birth.
“We do a lot of things at Dollywood. They asked me if I would write a song that nobody would ever hear,” she told “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon.
“I wrote a song and I put it in the box to be opened… and saying what we were doing with our music at that time, left all the instructions. And here’s how you can play this,” she added.
“I don’t know what they’ll do with it, but I have regretted that, because it was a really good song!” she joked. “I keep wanting them to let me dig it up and put something else in it that’s not as good.”
That same year, she told fellow singer and talk show host Kelly Clarkson about the song, expressing concerns it would never be heard.
“I figure it’ll probably disintegrate and probably nobody will ever hear it, that’s what bothers me… if it rots in there before they open it.”
But beyond that song, Parton said in a 2019 interview for WNYC’s “Dolly Parton’s America” podcast that she had written “hundreds, even thousands of songs” — many of them unrecorded.
“There’s enough stuff to go on forever with my music — to do compilation albums, to do actually new and original stuff,” she said.
“And I am purposely trying to put songs down for that very purpose, to have a click track and my vocals to where any, any arrangement can be done,” Parton added.
“So that will go on forever. I’m one of those people that believe in being prepared.”
Parton did not offer specifics about how such arrangements could work, or how her estate would handle the rights issues, but it offers the tantalizing prospect of Parton tunes for years to come.
Tina Tallon, a professor of artificial intelligence and music composition at The Ohio State University, explains that a “click track” features clicks or beeps such as a metronome, or other cues to capture rhythm.
By recording her vocals with such a track, Parton could “communicate her intentions with respect to tempo, mood, and structure,” Tallon told AFP.
Other musicians would then be able to sync their performances to her pre-recorded vocals, either by sampling or in a full arrangement.
“She certainly found a way to preserve her artistic vision while also inviting people to continue to be a part of her legacy,” Tallon said.
“One of the things that she was so good at was creating community and fostering collaborations, and this is yet another way she continues to give us those gifts, even after her passing.”
Tallon noted that some artists are exploring the idea of licensing their voices for artificial intelligence uses, and while Parton’s intentions on that concept are not known, her estate would be responsible for managing the legalities.
No matter what happens, at least one Parton tune will eventually be unearthed.
“If any of you are around when they open that box, well, I hope you enjoy my song,” Parton told the “Tonight Show” audience in 2022.
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