A mimin' Dolly

Its obvious Dolly can still sing, she usually sings live on television shows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4soJPbyyKZE

But imagine doing this virtually every night for 3/4 months, moving from city to city at 65 years of age. Your voice would be GONE. There would be no more studio albums, no more new material, and certainly no more touring. Women half her age (Britney Spears coughcough) have mimed exclusively since the beginning of their careers, so its to Dolly's credit if she even sings one note of a song on stage during this tour. I'm not upset, I want to see Dolly Parton, I will see Dolly Parton, being there while she is, is enough. There's plenty of live recordings of Dolly available on youtube, on CD (Live and Well, Heartsongs) so that's good enough for me! I'd rather her continue to make new music (Don't forget, the longest she's ever gone without bringing out a new album is 3 years! Staggering for someone whose album career began in 1967.
Give her a break and enjoy what we have! I think some here would benefit from listening to In the Meantime, it puts things in perspective. Or even Better Get to Livin' even! You can either enjoy the concert for what it is, or analyse each performance over and over to see if she's out of synch and be miserable throughout. I know what I'd rather do!!

She did not "mime" once during her concert here.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

You know something, I have to add something here. During the concert here, she actually had to go back three or four times after the more lively numbers to get a drink of water. So, proof that she works hard, loves what she is doing, and does it 100%. :) Love her so much now more than ever!

Yes, I did finally read once they said she mimed the harmonica bit. But, I don´t really know. She played it so real to me. Blew me away with the sax too! And, I was sitting in front of her! Imagine being blown away by a saxy woman! ;) Had to actually hang onto my seat! Whew! Can´t hardly wait for another concert season!

I have seen Dolly in concert five times the first time in 1978. Way back then she sang everything live but her concert was only about one hour with an opening act (Andrew Gold) who also sang for an hour). I saw here in the 80s with Kenny Rogers, and she still sang everything live then but it wasn't 2+ hours of just her singing. I WISH she would have a better balance now of live and lip synching. I saw here this past summer in Chicago, and it's aggravating that she even lip synched "I Will Always Love You." Of all songs NOT to lip synch to, that would be one. I know for a fact she lip synched it, because I know ever nuance of the song, and I have seen other video of other "performances" of that song on the same tour, and all are identical. Dolly does too many vocal inflections in her singing, and every live performance would be different for that reason. I'd rather here 90 minutes of her singing live than 2+ hours of singing in which MOST of it is recorded.

I love to hear Dolly singing on a dansette to vinyl but due to technical advances she doesn't sound the same she dont look the same as in the 70s probably because she isn't the same but who actually gives a Donkey bob I think we are all very lucky that she still tours EXtensively and uplifts our hearts minds and spirit ....Just keep doing whatever you are doing Dolly miming lip synching sitting on a stage doing jack shitt. Quite frankly I never feel so content uplifted or inspired as I do after a Dolly Concert or New album or film .

hello

hi there everyone,
i just wanted to say what a great pleasure it was to have dolly come back to our australian shores during her recent better day world tour. i wanted to add my opinion in regards to the suggestion of miming. after seeing her show 6 times up close and personal whilst she was here in oz, i think i can fairly easily say that i believe that approximately half her songs were sung live and half were definately sung to a guide track of some sort without question. i think if you saw the show once, you wouldn't pick up on it, but after the 4th time, i did notice that everything had become a mirror image from a few nights before. the songs in each of the shows were presented essentially 100% identical each time without the hint of even the slightest bum note, variation, cough, chat throughout any of the numbers, songs were presented just as you would hear on a studio album. numbers such as together you and i, better get to living, the sacrifice, the song from her movie, joyful noise was pre-recorded for sure, among others. i love dolly and i will always love dolly and quite frankly, its her show and she can present her work in any form that she chooses to. i think there is an immense amount of pressure on older generation singers these days from the public who expect them to belt it out for 2 hours non-stop and still sound like they did 25 years ago. this is just not realistic and it is unreasonable for the public to demand that every track is sung live based on dolly's age, the huge tour that she just completed and the volume of songs performed at each show.