Hello, Dolly

Legendary country music entertainer Dolly Parton made her first (and only, to date) appearance at the 2001 MerleFest, making it one of the more memorable festivals of the last 25 years.

Not surprisingly, Dolly drew a big crowd to the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro for the 14th incarnation of the annual Americana music festival that honors the memory of Doc and Merle Watson.

“Dolly Parton Saturday” attracted what was then the largest single-day attendance at the festival: 37,391 tickets sold, up 7.8% from the year prior. According to “B” Townes, then the festival director, Saturday’s paid attendance was up 53% over the year 2000.

Three-day tickets sales were up 37%, and Townes told the Wilkes Journal-Patriot, “this increases the overall economic impact to our community because people who stay multiple days are more likely spend tourist dollars here than the single day participant.”

Parton played several selections from her critically acclaimed, award-winning bluegrass album, “My Grass Is Blue,” released in 1999. She was also joined on stage by festival host Doc Watson.

“I’ve been loving (Doc Watson) for these years,” Parton told the Wilkes Journal-Patriot. “I used to be lucky enough to get to play with him now and then. I’ve always loved his music; I’ve always loved his playing.”

Newspaper publisher John W. Hubbard, writing about Parton’s performance Saturday night, called her “vibrant, exuberant, beautiful and talented—all in one package. She didn’t come to MerleFest for profit. It was to connect with the top bluegrass festival and old time festival in the country and to provide some money for her favorite charitable project, the effort in behalf of literacy (Dolly Parton’s Imagination Literacy).”

MerleFest veterans who made their first festival appearance in 2001 included Tift Merritt, Rory Block, Mitch Greenhill and Bryan Sutton.

Over 150 musicians played a wide variety of styles over the 14 stages at WCC. Total festival participation was estimated at over 68,000 people, including about 125 vendors of crafts, CDs, musical instruments, clothes and much more.

On Thursday night, April 26, the closing act was fusion bluegrass act Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, who returned to the festival after missing the year prior.

The Friday night schedule was headlined by Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder, Nickel Creek, Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, and the John Cowan Band.

The Sunday lineup included Mary Chapin Carpenter, Earl Scruggs, Vassar Clements, Marty Stuart and festival host Doc Watson with his perennially popular Sunday morning gospel show.