Dolly Parton’s first posthumous song has been released, with her distinctive voice appearing on a new version of the traditional bluegrass number Bound to Ride.
Recorded with the First Ladies of Bluegrass, the track was issued on Wednesday, two weeks after the country music legend died aged 80.
Parton recorded her vocal alone in her own studio during the Covid-19 pandemic, while the musicians laid down the instrumental backing separately. The song was later completed for Where the Soul Never Dies: Celebrating 80 Years of the Stanley Brothers, due to be released on 16 October.
The album, produced by Alison Brown and Garry West for Compass Records, celebrates the influential bluegrass duo Carter and Ralph Stanley and coincides with their long-delayed induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
For the new arrangement, the First Ladies of Bluegrass added an eight-bar bridge drawn from a little-known verse of the song. The group comprises Brown on banjo, Becky Buller on fiddle, Sierra Hull on mandolin, Missy Raines on bass and Molly Tuttle on guitar.
Parton introduces each musician during the recording before they take individual instrumental solos.
West told Rolling Stone that the singer had delivered what he called “the full Dolly” after the production team had been unsure what would come back from the remote recording session.
“We were shocked. We couldn’t have gotten anything better,” he said.
The tribute record also features Willie Nelson with Sierra Ferrell, Jamey Johnson with Shawn Camp, Dierks Bentley with Della Mae and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, among other artists.
According to the album’s producers, the Stanley Brothers helped popularise Bound to Ride with a 1964 recording. Their music drew on traditional string-band sounds, mountain ballads and church singing from south-western Virginia, influencing generations of country, bluegrass and Americana performers.
Parton died in Nashville, Tennessee, on 25 August. Her official website said she had died peacefully at the age of 80, while her representatives later said she had faced a brief battle with cancer.
Her family has requested a small private funeral service. Fans have also continued to share tributes to the singer, whose official social media accounts recently posted lyrics from her 1977 song Light of a Clear Blue Morning.
