We’re Living in the World Dolly Parton Built

Dolly Parton’s death at age 80 comes at a time when her influence seems at its peak. Country music is surging, female singer-songwriters are on top, and audiences seem hungry for honest idiosyncracy—for figures who, like Dolly, transmit their inner truth to mass audiences in a voice that’s clear yet scraggly. But Parton’s greatest legacy is existential in nature. Piling on wigs and feathers, she showed that you can be yourself while playing a character. Parton’s self-construction project began…