WYTHE COUNTY, Va., January 24, 2011 — According to Macmillan Dictionary the definition of hokey is a film, book, song, etc. that describes or shows someone’s emotions in a way that seems silly or not sincere.
It is often a word used to describe the people of the Applachian and Smokey Mountains; the people from Virginina and West Virginia down the Southeastern regions of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.
It is a less than flattering description as well as one that’s used improperly more often than not. Music has brought more than one "Hillbilly" out of the hills and to the stage. Loretta Lynn comes from the coal mining mountains of Butcher Hallow, Kentucky and Dolly Parton, she hails from Sevierville, Tennessee.
Both women come from dirt poor backgrounds, becoming Country Music icons due to their talent and "smarts."
Dolly Parton, known for her distinct "hills" voice and flamboyant hair and dress has retained her distinctive mountain accent and mannerisms. She would not be Dolly Parton without them.
Have you ever wondered how often Dolly Parton was, and possibly is, erroneously referred to as being hokey?
Have you ever wondered how many people were quick to dismiss Dolly Parton specifically because of her hillbilly accent? Before she established herself in the country music industry, before the advent of her persona as an icon, how often was she passed over?
Somewhere around the time when Dolly’s wealth exceeded a couple of million in the bank, she could have spent some of it to cultivate any accent she wished, worked on taming the regional mannerisms and any lingering “hokeyness,” she may had.
That is to say, with enough money you can hire a staff of coaches to make you sound exotic; to paying for a heritage other than your own. All it takes is a pocketful of money to create a persona, slickly assembled and lacking in controversy, with a history and origin palatable for public consumption.
Why didn't Dolly buy herself enough training to lose her hillbilly accent? There is no doubt that in her early career it was a hurdle for her to get over. I bet she lost count of the times she was not taken seriously just because of her accent.
So why not take the time and money to just make it disappear?
While being no mind reader, a real good guess is that Dolly enjoys being exactly who she has always been far too much to trade it for a contrived, albeit enhanced success. Like her, I could lose my accent if I really worked on it, but I simply do not want to.
I like being exactly who I am, and I am not rich, so it stands to reason Dolly feels the same way.
While not the sharpest tool in the shed by any stretch of the imagination, I am a lot quicker than my accent and offer no complaints about where I am in life or the road traveled to get here; I have got a good life and that is all I need to know.
If my accent held me back in any way, I really do not care. And I am pretty sure Dolly would agree. Take a good look at what she has done with her life and it is easy to conclude she doesn’t either.
Though not necessarily a huge fan of country music, there are far too many reasons to be a Dolly fan to be able to list them all. However, just a few high notes are:
- Dolly created an entire industry in Eastern Tennessee where she grew up. Keep in mind she didn’t have to do anything; her music alone would have kept her wealthy. Instead, she rolled up her sleeves and made a concept a reality by building Dollywood.
“If you build it they will come” was never truer than in this case. An entire economy based on tourism, all created by a backwoods hillbilly armed with nothing more than a vision, and the work ethic to see it come to fruition. A vision turned reality that is among the top vacation destinations in this country.
A vision that pumps millions into the local economy of the region of her childhood, and finally a vision that provides much needed jobs.
- In 1996, Dolly Parton launched Dolly Parton's Imagination Library to benefit her county’s preschool children and their families, by providing them with the gift of a specially selected book each month. This program became so popular that in the year 2000 she announced she would make the program available for replication to any community that was willing to partner with her to support it locally.
Currently over 1600 local communities provide the Imagination Library to almost 700,000 children each and every month. Think about these actions and ask yourself if you would be as socially conscious and caring before you dismiss her as “Hokey.” If that’s how hokey people behave, sign me up!
- A final example of Ms. Parton's contemporary influence is the song “I will always love you." Universally known and covered by too many artists to count, when Ms. Parton's song was first released, Elvis liked it so much he wanted to cover it, but according to long established policy he required fifty percent of the publishing royalties to participate.
Imagine being at the beginning of a successful career and having Elvis endorse your songwriting efforts. This is what happened to Dolly, but in the end she could not sell out, even to Elvis.
For those individuals who try to put on the accent, and who play “Hokey” for whatever misguided reason: Do not do that. You have to earn that “twang.”
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