Reviewer Abbie Kozolchyk writes, “If, like me, you’re someone who goes through postcollegiate life regretting all the fun courses you never took when you had the chance, Hamessley’s professorial passion [in the book] is a bonus. ... Analysis — of instrumentation, scales, tempo, form, lyrics or anything else that varies from version to version — is a clear forte of Hamessley’s.
“But there’s a lot more to the book, with particularly layperson-friendly sections on the juicy history of the country-pop rivalry, surprising new takes on “Jolene’s” commonly accepted backstory, the growing body of “answer songs” ... and the extraordinary gift Parton has for songwriting,” Kozolchyk writes.
Dolly Parton’s Jolene is published by Oxford University Press (2025) as part of their Keynotes Series. Each volume focuses on one composition or album and “provides an informed, critical, and provocative companion to music as artwork and experience.”
Posted July 9, 2025
