'Barbie' with business savvy

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Dolly Parton knows a good investment when she sees one, and these days, she sees one in the mirror.

Miss Parton, whose business portfolio includes a theme park and an entertainment production company, says she's spending a lot of her own money trying to get back on country radio with her new CD, "Backwoods Barbie."

"I'm looking at it like an investment," she said recently. "I thought, 'I've made enough money. I can afford to invest a little in myself.' "

For the first time, she self-released the disc on her own label, Dolly Records, and hired a seven-member promotion team.

The dozen tracks, nine of which she wrote, are her most accessible in 15 years after a trio of bluegrass albums, a collection of patriotic songs and a covers record.

"I purposely tailor-made this to try to get some hits," Miss Parton explains. "I would have done this all along, but I couldn't get anything going and had to resort to other music I loved."

The album reached No. 2 on Billboard in its second week, her best showing in 17 years.

However, the first single, "Better Get to Livin'," a country-pop song she describes as sonically similar to Keith Urban's work, sputtered at No. 48.

"The problem with that song is that it had big neutral scores," says John Hart, a Nashville-based market researcher who tested it in 20 cities. "It never turned up any real appeal to any of the age groups."

The second single, "Jesus & Gravity," a gospel-flavored tune in the vein of recent faith-based chart-toppers "Jesus, Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood and "Believe" by Brooks & Dunn, is just arriving on radio.