Dolly

Dolly Parton died this week, at 80.

I live in Tennessee. You don’t get to be a musician in this state and not have some relationship to her, even if your own work sounds nothing like hers — and mine doesn’t.

What I’ve always taken from Dolly is economy. She wrote songs a child can sing back after one hearing and that a professional can study for a career, and those are usually two different skill sets. She got both out of the same three chords. That’s not simplicity. That’s someone who knew exactly what to leave out.

Most of what I do is the opposite — more information, not less. Which is probably why it lands so hard when somebody does it the other way.