Don't get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.

Dolly Parton (1946 - 2026)

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A heavy silence over the hills today.

I was late to Dolly. As a big music buff I kind of listened around her, chalking it up to being too mainstream country (my least-listened-to-genre).

I didn't really go through the catalogue until 2022, during a six week special archival assignment that nearly burned me out. She just happened into my algorithm the first day. And then I started listening to more tracks and then albums and eventually she was what got me through it.

I think that was the trick of her. She wasn't only for the people who grew up with her. She kept showing up for people who arrived decades after the fact, tired and not looking for anything, and she'd meet them there anyway.

Sixty years of work and it was still landing on strangers right to the end.

Rest easy.