Dolly Parton - The Acoustic Collection 1999-2002 [3CD Box Set] (2006) FLAC/320

Dolly Parton has proven herself to be the rarest of figures, of singer and songwriter who became a superstar yet retained the skills and impulses of a serious, seriously driven artist. During the three years covered in The Acoustic Collection 1999 to 2002 she released three career-defining albums. Prior to their release, no one would have ever questioned Parton's place among the greatest country stars of all time, as both a singer and songwriter. But these three albums The Grass is Blue, Little Sparrow and Halos & Horns, embodying a shift from pop to her mountain roots-astonished even her most ardent, longtime fans by revealing shades of Parton people hadn't quite seen before. The CD have included the albums won two GRAMMY award in two years. Parton performed on the GRAMMY award show and received the GRAMMY for ''Best Bluegrass Album'' for the Grass is Blue and October 2000, she performed at the International Bluegrass Music Association awards show and The Grass is Blue was named album of the year. Also the Little Sparrow awarded the GRAMMY for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for ''Shine.'' The album's spare but passionate arrangements cast the beauty and purity of Parton's voice and writing in a new light. The 3-CD set includes a DVD bonus.

Like other country mainstays (Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, et al.), Dolly Parton found creative emancipation in freedom from the commercial airwaves, once the younger generation of artists began dominating country radio. The crossover slickness and calculation of some of her later country hits is nowhere in evidence on this trio of albums that marked her belated return to acoustic bluegrass and mountain music. 1999's Grammy-winning The Grass Is Blue launched the back-to-roots trilogy (also including Little Sparrow and Halos & Horns), with a bonus DVD completing the bargain-priced, four-disc box. Among its highlights are five new song mixes that spotlight the vocal or instrumental work, tribute covers by Kasey Chambers and Sinead O'Connor, a video of Parton and Norah Jones performing "The Grass Is Blue," and extensive notes on the making of these albums. Producer Steve Buckingham and Parton enlisted top musicians (like Jerry Douglas and Stuart Duncan) and harmonizers (like Alison Krauss and Patty Loveless) on material that ranges from the original to the traditional (the Louvins' "Cash on the Barrelhead," Johnny Cash's "I Still Miss Someone") to the out-of-left-field (Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick Out of You"). For those who love the purity of her songbird trill, this is a return to the early form of "Jolene." --Don McLeese