Better Day (album)
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''Better Day'' is the forty-third solo studio album by American singer-songwriter
Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...
. It was released on June 28, 2011, by Dolly Records and
Warner Music Nashville Warner Music Group's labels include the following. Flagship labels * Atlantic Records * Elektra Records *Parlophone Records *Warner Records Atlantic Records Group * 1st & 15th Entertainment * All Money In * Artist Partners Group * Asylum Re ...
. The album was produced by Parton and Kent Wells. To promote the album, Parton embarked on her Better Day World Tour. With 49 shows, the tour visited North America, Europe, and Australia.


Background

Parton first mentioned plans for a new album in October 2010 during an interview with ''The Huntsville Times''. She said she was currently working on the album which will "have some uplifting gospel flavor and some country." She went on to say that she plans to tour "in the fall and winter" in Europe and Australia. It was announced in January 2011 that the album's title would be ''Better Day''.


Content

''Better Day'' contains entirely original material, her first since ''
Hungry Again ''Hungry Again'' is the thirty-fifth solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton. It was released on August 25, 1998, by Decca Records and Blue Eye Records. The album was produced by Parton and her cousin, Richie Owens. It is seen ...
''. However, only six of the album's twelve tracks are exclusively new. Four of the songs on ''Better Day'', "I Just Might", "Shine Like the Sun", "Get Out and Stay Out" and "Let Love Grow" are Parton's personally recorded versions of songs she wrote for the Broadway adaptation of her 1980 movie ''
9 to 5 Working(laboring) time is the period of time that a person spends at paid Wage labour, labor. Unpaid work, Unpaid labor such as personal housework or caring for children or pets is not considered part of the working week. Many countries regula ...
''. "Holding Everything" was previously written for and recorded by
Randy Owen Randy Yeuell Owen (born December 13, 1949) is an American country music artist. He is best known for his role as the lead singer of Alabama, a country rock band that saw tremendous mainstream success throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Alabama became ...
on his debut album, '' One on One''. In an interview with ''
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'', it was noted that the songs on the album are thematically linked, in that they are all inspirational. Parton replied with, "We actually did demo a lot of songs for this and it seemed that with everything being so doomsday-terrorists and bad weather and unemployment-we need a little sunshine. I wanted to do something people would want to hear." Parton told ''
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'' that the album inspired in part by such disparate world problems as the Japanese tsunami, the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and America's economic crisis". Parton added, "I don't write just to relieve my own anxieties, I write for the people who can't express themselves." She concluded by saying, "I can't save the world, but I might be able to save someone today if I can put them in a better mood. The music's designed to be like a ray of sunshine for all those folks in the dark."


Release and promotion

The first single from the album, "Together You and I," was premiered on
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on May 27, 2011. Parton has already begun promotion of the tour and album, including across the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
and
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in the United Kingdom in April 2011. The album was released on CD, vinyl and digital download. The album's lead single, " Together You and I" was released on May 23, 2011 to digital retailer,
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. A video for the single was filmed, and was originally scheduled to debut on May 28. However, for unknown reasons, the video was delayed and later debuted on July 4 on country music video station, CMT. The video was directed by acclaimed
CMT Music Awards The CMT Music Awards is a fan-voted awards show for country music videos and television performances. The awards ceremony is held every year in Nashville, Tennessee, and broadcast live on the CMT (Country Music Television) channel. Voting takes p ...
"Video Director of the Year",
Trey Fanjoy Trey Fanjoy is an American music video director. Fanjoy has directed over 150 major label music videos. Her videos have appeared on CMT, VH1, GAC, The Nashville Network, CMT Canada, and MTV. She is the first woman to win the Country Music Asso ...
. "The Sacrifice" was released as the album's second and final single, and a music video was created using live footage from Parton's ''Better Day World Tour''.


Critical reception

''Better Day'' has received positive reviews from most music critics. At
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an
average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 72, based on 19 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Mikael Wood of the ''
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'' stated, "Stylistically, “Better Day” lands somewhere between Parton's recent bluegrass albums and 2008's “Backwoods Barbie”", and praised of Parton, " erirrepressible personality is the star attraction, and on “Better Day” it shines.". Elysa Gardner of ''
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'' gave ''Better Day'' three out of four stars, and wrote "this age-defying country girl, with her resilient soprano and infectious pluck, seems incapable of a truly false note." ''
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s
Ken Tucker Kenneth Tucker is an American arts, music and television critic, magazine editor, and non-fiction book writer. Early life and education Tucker was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and raised in Stamford, Connecticut. He earned a ...
wrote, "In the midst of hard economic times, the positive anthems that fill Better Day ..come off as brilliant strategy, with some equally brilliant vocal performances." Tucker added to this, with his review for
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's
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, stating, "There's a sincere and earnest quality to this music that enables it to stand apart from so much of the trumped-up emotionalism and cheesy irony of the pop-music world all around it." In a favorable review, ''Billboard'''s Phil Gallo exclaimed, "The album's dozen story songs .are filled with uplifting sentiment and words of encouragement set against a variety of backdrops, most of them deeply rooted in country traditions rather than acquiescing to radio demands", and claimed that the album's mid-tempo songs, "leap out and beg to be played on the radio." ''
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'' writer Nate Chinen offered praise for Parton's "almost ageless" vocals. Holly Gleason of ''
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'' stated that Parton, "juxtaposes superstardom with her down-home comfort zone" and continued that the album is a "pop-country gem that empowers as it punches country radio’s clichés with a freshness". ''
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s Steve Leggett commended that ''Better Day'' is, "an energetic, spirited, and hopeful outing that rocks and soars with enough musical sunshine to light up even the grayest day" and wrote that Parton, "has never sounded fresher or more spirited ..she shows she still knows how to write a timeless song." ''
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s Allison Stewart stated that ''Better Day'' is a "restless jumble of styles weighted toward mainstream country", and that the album "is only as great as it needs to be". Carla Gillis of ''
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'' panned the album's "eye-rolling Dollyisms", but complimented that Parton's vocals were "as strong, clear and distinct as ever."


Commercial performance

''Better Day'' debuted at number 51 on the ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart with first week sales of 17,500. The album also debuted at number 11 on the ''Billboard''
Top Country Albums Top Country Albums is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. The 50-position chart lists the most popular country music albums in the country, calculated weekly by Broadcast Data Systems based on physical sales a ...
chart. In the UK, the album was released on August 29, 2011 and debuted at No. 9 on the
UK Album Charts The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...
, becoming Parton's highest charting studio album in that country as well as becoming a No.1 on the UK Country Albums Chart


Track listing


Personnel

Adapted from the album liner notes. * Kii Arens – Art Direction * Mike Brignardello –
Bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
* Matt Coles – Assistant * Jamie Dailey – Background Vocals * Christian Davis – Background Vocals * Michael Davis –
Hammond B3 Organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...
,
Synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
* Richard Dennison – Background Vocals * Kyle Dickinson – Assistant * Allen Ditto – Assistant * Peter Dokus – Photo Assistance *
Lloyd Green Lloyd Lamar Green (born October 4, 1937) is an American steel guitarist noted for his extensive country music recording session career in Nashville performing on 116 Chart Hit, No.1 Country music, country hits including Tammy Wynette's “D-I-V-O- ...
Steel Guitar A steel guitar ( haw, kīkākila) is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conve ...
* Andy Hall –
Dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...
* Vicki Hampton – Background Vocals *
Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including ...
– Background Vocals on track 3 *
Aubrey Haynie Aubrey Haynie (born March 27, 1974) is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle and mandolin. In his career, he has recorded three studio albums for the Sugar Hill Records label, all three of which contained mostly songs that he wr ...
Fiddle A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...
,
Mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
* Steve Hinson – Steel Guitar,
Slide Guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...
* Paul Hollowell – Hammond B3 Organ,
Keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...
,
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
* Becky Isaacs – Background Vocals * Sonya Isaacs – Background Vocals *
Randy Kohrs Randy Kohrs is an American multi-instrumentalist best known for his resonator guitar prowess, but he plays 13 instruments. He is also a Grammy-winning producer and recording engineer. Biography Early years Kohrs was raised on a farm near the rur ...
– Dobro *
Alison Krauss Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass-country singer and musician. She entered the music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of 8 and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with ...
– Background Vocals on track 3 * Rob McNelley – Electric guitar * Jerry McPherson – Electric guitar * Steve Mackey – Bass guitar,
Upright Bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
* Stephen Marcussen – Mastering *
Brent Mason Brent Mason (born July 13, 1959) is an American, Nashville, Tennessee-based recording studio guitarist and songwriter, performing primarily country music. Guitar World Magazine listed him as one of the "Top Ten Session Guitarists of All Time". ...
Electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...
* Jimmy Mattingly – Fiddle, Mandolin * Patrick Murphy – Engineering, Mixing * Jennifer O'Brien – Background Vocals * Richie Owens –
Harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
*
Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...
– Composer, Executive Producer, Lead Vocals, Background Vocals * Cheryl Riddle – Hair Stylist *
Hargus "Pig" Robbins Hargus Melvin Robbins (January 18, 1938 – January 30, 2022), known by his nickname "Pig," was an American session keyboard player. Having played on records for many artists, including John Stewart, Dolly Parton, Connie Smith, Patti Page, Lore ...
– Piano * Ben Schmitt – Assistant * Tony Smith – Engineer * Fran Strine – Photography * Steve Summers – Costume Design *
Bryan Sutton Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs. Biography Early career Sutton's grandfather and ...
Acoustic Guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
* Dave Talbot –
Banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
* Steve Turner –
Drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
,
Percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
* Darrin Vincent – Background Vocals *
Biff Watson Fletcher Bangs "Biff" Watson is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. His musicianship has been a part of recording sessions for many artists. Biography Early years Raised in Chatham, Virginia, Watson learned how to play guitar at a ...
– Acoustic Guitar * Kent Wells – Acoustic Guitar, Electric guitar, Producer, Background Vocals * Stewart Whitmore – Digital Editing


Charts


Release history


References

{{Authority control 2011 albums Dolly Parton albums