Reviewed by Dave Brassington

Amongst her other claims to fame, Dolly has become known in recent years for her very worthwhile charity work with her Imagination Children's library, providing thousands of children's books for poor children, not only in her native Smoky Mountains of Tennessee, but even, would you believe it, in Rotherham to name just one beneficiary here in the UK! Dolly says in the sleeve notes that all profits from the sale of this CD will go to further enhance the work of her Imagination Library. This is basically a children's album with some specially written new fun songs among the 14 tracks. The album is strongly themed around her classic "Coat Of Many Colours" here reprised with a brand new recording and a vocal reading of the song towards the end. For anybody not familiar with the country star's work, this was one of her earliest country hits, based around the story in the Bible of Joseph, and it remains to this day one of Dolly's most loved concert performances and is also the singer's own personal favourite of the literally hundreds of songs she has written in her long career. "Brave Little Soldier" is to my best knowledge the only other track she has previously recorded on her 'For God And Country' CD. I can imagine many of Dolly's fans snapping this up, but otherwise it has to be admitted it may only have limited appeal to the general music fan, unless they are really keen to support Dolly's Imagination Library. Towards the end "Chemo Hero", dedicated to children enduring the trauma of chemotherapy for cancer, is simply unlike anything else I have ever heard.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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