Hello, Dolly

About 30 years ago, George Jones and Tammy Wynette headlined a standing-room-only show at the Spokane Opera House.

Yet the next day, the Spokane Chronicle said a “supporting act” stole the show.

“Dolly Parton, a bouncy doll in a darling, red-and-white sequined slacks outfit, captivated the audience with an unrecorded ditty about a little girl and her dog and then brought them to a standing ovation with ‘Love is Like a Butterfly,’ ” wrote the reviewer in 1974.

When Parton returns to Spokane for a show at the Arena on Saturday night, no one will mistake her for a supporting act.

With dozens of hit country and pop songs, a well-received acting career (“9 to 5”) and her own theme park (Dollywood), she is one of the most recognizable figures in show business. America has been on a first-name basis with her for decades.

With due respect to Jones and Wynette, Parton probably should have been the headliner even in that 1974 show. She already had several No. 1 country hits (“Joshua,” “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You”) and had been a seasoned country performer since she was a kid.

Despite growing up in poverty in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee (well-described in her song “Coat of Many Colors”), Parton was already making TV appearances in Knoxville at age 12. At age 13 she had recorded a few songs and finagled an appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.

In 1967, at age 21, she had her first two country chart hits, “Dumb Blonde” and “Something Fishy.” That’s also the year she began a lucrative duo partnership with Porter Wagoner, producing 20 hit singles between 1967 and 1980.

However, as early as 1970 she was becoming the more popular half of the group, especially after her solo single “Joshua” hit No. 1 on the country charts.

Yet her fame didn’t crack the mainstream until 1977, when her solo single “Here You Come Again” made the Top 10 on both the country and pop charts. The Associated Press pronounced her the Queen of Country, and she began headlining all of her own shows, including a 1977 return to the Spokane Opera House.

This time, a Spokesman-Review critic wrote that the crowd was so enthusiastic that its standing ovation didn’t end inside the auditorium. Six rambunctious young men went outside in the snow to continue “whoopin’ and hollerin’ and caterwauling in a true country-style serenade for the Queen of Country Music.”

Parton’s celebrity was enhanced further by her collaborations with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris (1987’s “Trio”) and her well-received movie roles in “9 to 5,” “Steel Magnolias” and “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.”

Some share of her fame came from her outrageous wigs and her outsized figure (what do you think “bouncy” meant in that 1974 review?). Yet she has become an enduring figure in American music because of a quality sometimes overlooked: Parton is, and always has been, a gifted songwriter.

It’s evident as early as 1971’s “A Coat of Many Colors,” which uses multilayered biblical imagery to describe what others would call a ragged, patched-up coat. It’s even evident in the title song of the movie “9 to 5,” which has the line: “They let you dream just to watch them shatter, you’re just a step on the boss man’s ladder.”

“I was blessed with the gift of rhyme,” Parton has been quoted as saying.

Her musical reputation has only increased within the past few years. She has returned to her mountain roots with a series of mostly acoustic albums: “Hungry Again,” “The Grass Is Blue,” and “Little Sparrow.”

This tour, titled “Hello, I’m Dolly,” will include some of that recent material. But it is mainly designed to showcase all four decades of her musical career.

“The show itself has every color of me in it, from gospel to bluegrass to country to the bigger production numbers, and to the pop hits I’ve been fortunate to do through the years,” said Parton in a press release.

Bluegrass will also be represented in the opening act, the Grascals. This six-piece band, made up of bluegrass and Nashville veterans, have been signed to Rounder Records and also accompany Parton on her current single, a bluegrass remake of “Viva Las Vegas.”