Kacey Musgraves Honours Dolly Parton With Two-Song Tribute at Boston Tour Stop
Kacey Musgraves dedicated her song 'Rainbow' and a cover of Dolly Parton's 'Here You Come Again' to the late country legend during a tour stop at Boston's TD Garden on Friday, Aug. 28.
According to Billboard, Parton passed away on Aug. 25 after a brief battle with cancer. She was 79.
Between songs, Musgraves spoke about what Parton meant beyond the music. "People are talking about what a humanitarian she was," Musgraves told the TD Garden crowd, according to footage she shared from the show, which Billboard reported on. Photos of Parton were displayed on the arena's big screen as Musgraves led the audience in a sing-along of 'Rainbow', the closing track from her Grammy-winning 2018 album 'Golden Hour' Billboard.
She then performed 'Here You Come Again', the title track from Parton's 1977 studio album and her earliest pop crossover hit. The song, written by the songwriting duo Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the all-genre singles chart — in 1978. Only two other Parton recordings charted higher on the Hot 100: '9 to 5' and her Kenny Rogers duet 'Islands in the Stream', both of which reached No. 1 in the early 1980s Billboard.
The song carried personal history for Musgraves. She performed 'Here You Come Again' alongside Parton herself during a medley of Parton's hits at the 2019 Grammy Awards. Earlier that same year, Musgraves sang the song as a duet with Katy Perry in Parton's honour at the MusiCares Person of the Year gala, the Recording Industry's annual benefit honouring a musician's philanthropic work Billboard.
The Boston tribute was part of Musgraves' 'Middle of Nowhere Tour', supporting her album of the same name. Video of the moment went viral on Instagram, according to People People.
Parton's death on Aug. 25 prompted an outpouring across country music and beyond. Musgraves' tribute, staged just three days later in a packed arena, placed Parton's own pop crossover moment beside a contemporary artist's ballard — a pairing that traced a direct line from one generation of country songwriting to another.
