Dolly Parton’s first posthumous song will be released next month on an all-star bluegrass tribute album to the Stanley Brothers.
Parton’s “Bound to Ride” is one of several tribute songs on “Where the Soul Never Dies: Celebrating 80 Years of The Stanley Brothers,” which will be released Oct. 16.
Parton recorded her vocal alone at her studio during a 2022 COVID surge. The First Ladies of Bluegrass band laid down the backing track separately.
Rolling Stone magazine reported that producer Garry West called her performance “the full Dolly,” saying “we couldn’t have gotten anything better.”
Parton supposedly called out all the First Ladies of Bluegrass in the song.
The album, produced by the husband-and-wife duo behind Compass Records — banjoist Alison Brown and bassist Garry West — is timed to the Stanley Brothers’ induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Contributors include Willie Nelson and Sierra Ferrell, Jamey Johnson and Shawn Camp, Dierks Bentley with Della Mae, and Steve Martin and Ed Helms on a comedy track.
Mr. West said the Stanley Brothers’ influence is often overlooked, noting many musicians who play their songs “don’t even know the origins of them.”
Producers will host a live tribute concert featuring several of the album’s artists at Nashville’s CMA Theater on Oct. 28.
Mr. West said the goal is for younger musicians to “pick up on the music again and keep it moving forward, and keep it alive and keep reinventing it.”
The Stanley brothers — Ralph on banjo and Carter on guitar and vocals — played bluegrass music from the 1940s to 1966. Carter died in 1967, and Ralph continued playing and recording until his death in 2016.
Parton died Aug. 25 at age 80 after a battle with cancer.
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