It’s no exaggeration to say that the self-proclaimed Backwoods Barbie, Dolly Parton, took Kilkenny by storm: there was a full force gale brewing before she’d even sung a note.
The weather conditions might have been a reason to cancel the show altogether – but Dolly is made of sterner stuff! That country music’s diminutive diva would be swept away into the Kilkenny night like a sequinned blond tumbleweed, bouncing on those world-famous FFs and howling like a banshee on helium, was a risk no one wanted to countenance: as the storm blew, crew members scrambled up ladders to fix the tarpaulins, riggers swung precariously from the rafters, and production staff struggled to gaffer-tape unruly carpets to the floor boards.
However, this 62-year-old Tennessee tornado refused to let her little self be outdone by anything nature could summon. An hour later than scheduled, she emerged wearing a slinky black and silver dress over a white cotton blouse that emphasised her assets, and launched straight into a powerful ‘Two Doors Down’, backed by an 11-strong backing band. The performance, obviously rehearsed down to the most minute of details, was tighter than her outfit: the chit-chat between songs linked perfectly, and the hits were flicked out at breakneck speed. ‘Jolene’ came and went with a flurry of chintzy keyboards polluting its immaculate guitar riff, while ‘Thank God I’m A Country Girl’ provided the opportunity to wrap those long, fuchsia talons skilfully around banjo, fiddle and harmonica alike.
Three quarters of the way through the 90 minute set, Dolly reluctantly succumbed to the cold she’d been complaining of throughout, and slipped into a jacket that was buttoned up for her by a buff, six-packed line-dancing toyboy, who must’ve been freezing himself in his skimpy dungarees and open necked shirt. But the chill in the air was reflected in a performance that felt, at times, cool and calculated, only really generating any on-stage heat in the final 15 minutes with fantastic a-cappella versions of ‘Do I Ever Cross Your Mind’ and ‘Little Sparrow’, and crowd-pleasers ‘Islands In The Stream’ and ‘9 To 5’.
A country girl she may be, but you get the impression that she’s more at home in a city theatre than on a country stage. Well, when there’s a gale force wind blowing at least...