The musician Dolly Parton called “one of our greatest songwriters”
When an artist is as prolific as someone like Dolly Parton, it’s quite common that they’re the sort of person who will usually choose to write alone rather than work alongside others.
Yes, sometimes two or more artists can be so in tune with each other that writing as a collaborative process can still happen with relative ease, and there are numerous duos and groups who have successfully managed to showcase a flair for producing music fluidly and frequently, but this process isn’t for everyone.
If you have a quick scan of Parton’s discography, large portions of her work are written solely by her without any contributions from other artists, and this is perhaps part of the reason her style has always managed to remain so distinct over the course of her storied career.
Another reason for sticking to this principled way of working is that collaboration can often lead to compromise, and when you’ve got a specific vision in mind for your work, you don’t want to have to rely on others who may want to inject a little bit of their own vision and personality into your creations, nor do you want to be waiting on them to work at your pace if you’re more inclined to move quickly.
With all of this in mind, it’s no wonder that Parton wished to keep things simple and that her only favoured way of working was in solitude. This way, she was able to add to her prolific nature whenever she wanted, and if there were no ideas flowing, she could take a break whenever she pleased as well.
However, she didn’t write absolutely everything by herself, and when she did end up working alongside others, they had to be people whom she fully trusted and who could work in a similar fashion. Given this, it’s hardly surprising that her favourite songwriter of all time is one of the only people she made an effort to work alongside frequently, and in a 2016 interview with The Guardian, she praised her collaborator, Mac Davis, stating that he was the ideal person to work alongside.
“My writing time is very private and spiritual,” she explained, justifying her reasons for primarily working alone. “I hardly ever write with anybody else. Every once in a while, I’ll write with Mac Davis, who is one of our greatest songwriters – we write quick and good together – but for the most part, I do it on my own.”
Despite this, she did acknowledge that she was open to the idea of more collaborative work, “I wish I had time to write with more people, but my time is so limited, it takes all I’ve got just to do what I need to do.”
Having worked together since the 1970s, Parton and Davis enjoyed a fruitful working relationship, and with the latter having also written songs for the likes of Elvis Presley, Nancy Sinatra and Perry Como, it was clear that he was the sort of prolific songwriter that Parton would be able to work alongside easily, because both had incredible credentials as songwriters, and both were fully in tune with the ideas of one another.
