Leave it to country’s current record holder to tackle one of Dolly Parton’s most famous (and frequently covered) songs. During Wednesday night’s CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton, Ella Langley offered her take on the 1974 hit “Jolene,” which the star first performed at her Auburn, Alabama, concert shortly after Parton’s death. Following an introduction from Katy Perry (who called Parton “the blueprint”), Langley offered a smoldering version of the classic that paid tribute to Parton’s original arrangement.
It’s an appropriate song choice for Langley, who broke the Billboard Hot 100 chart record with “Choosin’ Texas,” a song about losing her man to the wiles of another — not too unlike the premise of “Jolene,” which Parton wrote when she saw her husband, Carl Dean, interact with an attractive woman at a bank.
“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton told NPR in 2008. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’ So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”
Langley took to her social media accounts after Parton’s death to pay tribute to the artist whom she has called a seminal influence. “Dolly, thank you for standing up for yourself as an artist, a songwriter, a musician, a producer, an author, a creative, and most importantly a woman in this industry. You paved the way for so many to be brave,” Langley posted. “Thank you for being unafraid to show your most authentic self. The world needed Dolly and will never see another like it. The gates of heaven just welcomed home a beautiful soul.”
Staged at Nashville’s Belmont University, CMA Presents I Will Always Love You: A Celebration of Dolly Parton aired live on Oct. 21 on ABC and Disney+, and will be available to stream on Hulu beginning Oct. 22. Proceeds from the event benefit Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. Other performers included Brad Paisley, Zac Brown, Carrie Underwood, and Vince Gill.
