The July-September issue of The Nashville Musician features a review of Unlikely Angel: The Songs of Dolly Parton by Professor of Music Lydia Hamessley. The book was published last year by the University of Illinois Press.
Reviewer Dave Pomeroy said that by focusing on Parton’s songwriting, Hamessley allows the music icon’s “larger-than-life personality and public image to fade into the background and let the introspective, artistic side of her incredible skill set come out to great effect.”
Pomeroy discussed the arrangement of Unlikely Angel and how Hamessley’s use of Parton’s own insights about her music provides “an immediacy and perspective unavailable elsewhere.
“Hats off to Hamessley for shining a light on the less familiar but perhaps most important aspects of the timeless artistry of Dolly Parton,” Pomeroy concluded.
