‘Dolly Parton’s Threads’ arranger David Hamilton shares insights on expanded show with Dallas Symphony
Written by: Ian Saint
Dolly Parton has led a dramatic life. From her “Tennessee Mountain Home” two-room cabin roots, to her Grand Ole Opry debut in 1959 (introduced by none other than Johnny Cash), to her six-decade marriage with a man the public seldom saw, to co-owning the Dollywood amusement park (and top employer) in her community and much more, Parton’s wide breadth of experiences have inspired many of the thousands of songs she’s written.
Today, a summary of Dolly’s dramatic life is being soundtracked by orchestras nationwide — including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which hosts Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony at downtown Dallas’s Morton Meyerson Symphony Center (2301 Flora St.) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Jason Seber conducts; and the vocalists are Katelyn Drye, Hollie Hammel and Blair Lamb.
“The threads of my life are woven together through my songs,” Parton explained about the show’s name in a press statement. At Threads‘ March 20 premiere in Nashville, Parton said “I always say my songs are like my kids…. Just hearing what the symphony and all the wonderful singers are going to do with them, that’s really what songwriters live for.”
Per DollySymphony.com, “Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs In Symphony, is an innovative multimedia experience featuring Dolly on screen, leading audiences in a visual-musical journey of her songs, her life, and her stories. With a cast of phenomenal guest vocalists and musicians, along with new and innovative orchestrations by David Hamilton, Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs In Symphony features hit songs including ‘Jolene,’ ‘Coat Of Many Colors,’ and ‘I Will Always Love You,’ in addition to Dolly’s personal favorites and an as-yet unreleased selection from her upcoming Broadway musical.”
Buddy spoke with Threads arranger and pianist David Hamilton from his Nashville recording studio this week to discuss the upcoming shows, which includes two additional Parton hits not played at the Nashville premiere: “Islands in the Stream” and “Here You Come Again.”
IAN SAINT: Thanks for speaking with Buddy Magazine as you prepare to bring Dolly Parton’s Threads to the Lone Star State. I interviewed Amy Grant a few months ago, and I know you’ve worked with her for many years.
DAVID HAMILTON: I have. She’s a dear friend. We’ve made a lot of music together over the years — we’ve been with the Dallas Symphony together before. I’m going to be doing Christmas music with her again soon.
IAN SAINT: Awesome! Congratulations to you and Dolly for seeing this epic orchestral production through. What’s the rough timeline of Threads coming to fruition? Had you met Dolly before Threads?
DAVID HAMILTON: I had not. I was delighted to be asked to write the arrangements. For a couple years — maybe even longer than that — the company that we wrote this show for, Schirmer Theatrical in New York, worked with Sony Music Publishing in Nashville, who manages Dolly’s copyrights. They had this idea for a good long time, they developed the concept, and then they brought me on board a little over a year ago to start writing the arrangements. I began to speak into the creative team too, and with Dolly’s management and her team; a bunch of us were all crafting it. My particular part was about 9-10 months of writing and tweaking.
IAN SAINT: So, was there a moment when you were face to face with Dolly while arranging the show? Because there are so many elements to this presentation.
DAVID HAMILTON: You know, I actually didn’t get to meet her until after I’d finished writing — I worked closely with her regular musical director, who has traveled with her for years, and he was very helpful with [the arrangements]. But I had an amazing day [with Dolly]. She shot an entire day of videos for us; if you come see the show, she hosts the night on video — [from her] “welcome to my show,” and she tells all these amazing stories about her life and songwriting.
I got to meet her that day, and an awesome thing happened. We’re doing a song in the show that she’s just recently written — and it’s actually also part of the musical theater show about her life. [Hamilton later elaborates to us that the song is “If You Hadn’t Been There,” about Dolly’s belated husband.] I got the opportunity to write the first arrangement of that for the orchestral setting. I played her my demo in front of everybody, and it was so fun to see her eyes light up and hear her song in a different way. Wow, I’m going to long remember that moment. She was very gracious, and that was cool. I’ve gotten to meet her briefly a few times through this process, and I enjoy being with her.
IAN SAINT: Incredible. How did you and Dolly’s team decide upon the set list? It comprises songs from all throughout Dolly’s career — from 1968’s “The Bridge” to 2025’s “If You Hadn’t Been There” — and they’re not in chronological order. Plus there are some album cuts, in addition to biggest hits. For example, I can’t find record of Dolly performing “The Bridge” beyond “The Porter Wagoner Show.”
DAVID HAMILTON: There was talk for quite a long time with the publishing company [Sony] and the folks in New York [Schirmer] about what we’d focus on. One of the parameters we’d decided was that we’d focus on songs that Dolly wrote herself — because we’re calling it Threads, and she tells so many stories of her life, like “I wrote this song about this.”
We were also very intentional about taking a few left turns creatively, and doing some songs that people wouldn’t necessarily [recall]. “The Bridge” is a great example. I didn’t make that choice myself — that particular song was [decided by] the Sony and New York folks — but a couple of other songs, I said, “I really think we ought to do this here.” You can imagine, with so much material, [deciding] what we are going to leave out was a tough job.
IAN SAINT: Can you recall which songs that you particularly advocated for, that made it into Threads?
DAVID HAMILTON: I mean, we certainly had to do her classics like “Jolene” and “Coat of Many Colors.” But I definitely wanted to do some bluegrass — it was a good challenge for me, [figuring out] how to write arrangements for the orchestra that kept the authenticity of bluegrass. We’re doing a [2014] song called “Blue Smoke,” that I really hoped we’d do, and they agreed.
IAN SAINT: You know, I think Dolly was ahead of her time by kicking off the new millennium with her bluegrass album trilogy. Bluegrass is having a commercial renaissance now — you see people like Billy Strings headlining arenas by playing bluegrass — and I reckon Dolly had a large hand in broadening bluegrass’s visibility in the mainstream. 1999’s The Grass Is Blue came out the year before O Brother, Where Art Thou? did. 2002’s Halos & Horns bluegrass album produced her first tour in 10 years, and Dolly played Dallas’s Granada Theatre with that.
Dolly’s bluegrass albums didn’t hit the same commercial heights of 9 to 5 or Jolene, but they have aged well. It’s wonderful to see Dolly’s fine bluegrass material is now part of today’s bluegrass renaissance via Threads.
DAVID HAMILTON: Yeah, I think so. “Blue Smoke” has been really fun. I was just conducting the Charlotte Symphony this past weekend, and people were loving that moment. We’re trying as much as we can to be authentic — I mean, having an orchestra playing bluegrass is not really authentic. [laugh] But we’ve got the banjo, mandolin, and guitars going, and the violins playing the fiddle stuff. It’s really fun to hear it that way.
IAN SAINT: I get goosebumps by your pairing of [1968’s] “The Bridge,” a song with a bone-chillingly abrupt ending — she is about to jump off a bridge, over her man’s abandonment — with [2007’s] “Better Get To Living.” Not only for the redemption arc, but because she released those songs 39 years apart — “The Bridge” is on Dolly’s 2nd album (Just Because I’m a Woman) and “Better Get To Living” was Dolly’s first release on her own record label.
Can you talk about that section? Suicide is a very taboo topic, and raw for country music fans in the recent wake of Naomi Judd’s death by suicide. But segueing that into “Better Get To Living,” wow…
DAVID HAMILTON: We actually do one other little thing in between, which I think makes it even better. We do have [“The Bridge”] abrupt ending. Dolly talks on video about how she wrote that song, and [essentially] says “I was never really afraid of controversy, because I wanted to just write from my heart and what I felt. And these are real experiences of people, good and bad.”
And then we do a little beautiful acapella moment of “Little Bird,” another song from that era. [“Little Bird” is from Dolly’s subsequent solo album, 1969’s In the Good Old Days (When Times Were Bad).] It’s a moment of three women singing in harmony, which is a lovely transition. Think about the weight of “The Bridge,” and then “Little Bird” uses the little bird as an analogy about love and flying and all that. Then we break into “Better Get to Livin’.” I think it’s a really great moment, that allows people to hear Dolly talk about the breadth of her writing, and what all she did for lots of reasons.
IAN SAINT: Speaking of the singers, I have to mention that vocalist Julie Williams is a friend of mine. I know she’s not going to be at the Dallas performance, but I’m so happy for her.
DAVID HAMILTON: Aw, you know Julie. She’s great. We had over 85 ladies audition for the artist spots on the show, and Julie did such a good job. We’re delighted to have her as part of the team.
IAN SAINT: “Jolene” to “If You Hadn’t Been There” is another brilliant pairing across half a century. Dolly’s vulnerability is on display as she begs Jolene to stop vying for her man. Then “If You Hadn’t Been There” is the first song that Dolly released as a widow. Can you talk about Dolly presenting that song? Seeing as Carl just died this year, did his death provoke a rearrangement of the show?
DAVID HAMILTON: That’s actually the new song I was talking about, that I got to write the arrangement. We were very intentional about putting that song there, because of what Dolly shares. There is a funny story about her husband, we all know she writes that song [“Jolene”], and people laugh. But then she says how Carl was her rock for 60 years. We hear a song about another person that influenced her, and we say that to the audience — [they realize] “man, I know people in my life that I wouldn’t be where I’m at without them being there.”
IAN SAINT: Porter Wagoner, of course, is another hugely consequential person in Dolly’s life. Dolly has identified 1977’s “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” as “my song of deliverance” from the fall-out of her split with Porter. That delves more into herself rebounding from the painful split, versus the endearing farewell to Porter in “I Will Always Love You” — which speaks to the complex nature of relationships as intertwined as Dolly and Porter’s. “Light of a Clear Blue Morning” ends the first act, right?
DAVID HAMILTON: It does, yeah. It’s wonderful. Not only is it energetic musically, but what it says to people is such an encouraging thing. [Dolly says] she’s just writing from her life; you know, “this is what happened to me, and this is how I responded.” It’s a joyful way to end the first act.
IAN SAINT: “I Will Always Love You” is the climax. That tune has the unique distinction of being the signature song for two of the biggest superstars in music history — plus, Dolly and Whitney Houston emerged from very different backgrounds in different generations.
How did you approach arranging “I Will Always Love You,” then? That seems like such a daunting challenge to me, because each recording has their legendary inflections — Dolly’s speaking part in the middle, Whitney starting the song acapella — and so many people have a stronger association with one versus the other.
DAVID HAMILTON: That’s a great question. You know, that was a really good challenge. Without giving it away, I’ll just say that I was influenced by both of them. We were trying to find a way to marry the two emotional qualities of those together in a way that worked. I hope I’ve achieved that — I think I have. People seem to really identify with it.
We tried to draw from each, and that actually speaks to the whole show — we’re not trying to do Dolly soundalike, [rather] we’re trying to honor her with her legacy. And it’s wonderful to hear the three ladies [singing in Threads] who are artists. They all have a little different take on it. With the orchestra, too — there are moments where the orchestra plays it and you go “wow, I hadn’t heard it exactly that way.”
IAN SAINT: That’s a fantastic segue for what I’m dying to know: what revelations did you have about Dolly as a songwriter, in the process of arranging the symphony show? Especially because the songs do comprise over half a century between them. Did you notice consistencies in Dolly’s songwriting across those decades, or things that evolved?
DAVID HAMILTON: A couple things come to mind when you say that. [The first being the stylistic] breadth of her writing. A dear friend of mine said the job of an arranger is to take the painting, and frame it in a way that we love it. That’s what I was trying to do: take all of the different elements of her writing, then how do I bring them together and frame it for this audience? So they’re not going to [just] a bluegrass show, or a musical theater show, or a pop show, or a country show — they’re going to hear all of it together. That was a good challenge for me.
The other thing I loved, as I got into Dolly’s songs, is the amazing lyrics. The way she just throws things out there from her life and history. There are some lyrics that I just scratched my head and went, “Where does she come up with that?” But you love it, and it just works. I love songwriters who are so gifted that they can say something unique or funny or whatever, but you go “Whoa, I get that.” She’s a master at that.
IAN SAINT: Most Threads songs were written by Dolly, but there are two notable exceptions: “Islands in the Stream” and “Here You Come Again.”
DAVID HAMILTON: Well, I’ll tell you the story about that. When we did the premiere of this show with the Nashville Symphony, those songs were not in the show at the time — remember, I’d told you we’d [decided] to just have songs that she’s written herself. But after Dolly came to the premiere, and it was such a wonderful night, she called the team and said, “I think we ought to do these two other songs.” If someone else had [requested those sudden additions], we might’ve just gone “well, we’re good.” But when Dolly calls and says “Hey, I love the show, why don’t we add these?” Oh, okay. You know, it was fantastic that she loved it so much; and we love those songs.
IAN SAINT: “Islands in the Stream,” her duet with Kenny Rogers, was written by the Bee Gees of all people — that’s so funny. And “Here You Come Again” was Dolly’s first pop hit, written by the famous Brill Building songwriting couple Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil — although the steel guitar on that was at Dolly’s insistence. That song is so unusual with its modulations; like the first bridge returns to the third verse half a step higher than the first two verses were.
DAVID HAMILTON: Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I’ve always loved “Here You Come Again.” It’s brilliant musical arranging and writing together, that takes you to another place key-wise and then comes back. You’re moving around, but it flows seamlessly.
IAN SAINT: And I didn’t realize it was the same songwriting couple (Mann-Weil) that wrote “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” with Phil Spector. I wouldn’t have connected the dots.
DAVID HAMILTON: Honestly, I didn’t realize that, either, until you just told me. Yeah, (“Islands in the Stream” and “Here You Come Again”) are two highlights of the night, and I’m so glad that we added them in — and that Dolly would want to do that was really great.
IAN SAINT: To tie your own “threads” with Dolly’s, I thought of a phrase I found you sharing. “Shine where God plants you.” I believe you adopted that while attending Wheaton College. Can you talk about how that wound up applying to your arranging for Dolly?
DAVID HAMILTON: Yeah, that’s great, thank you. I’m very grateful for some great training, and people that have influenced me, and that was one of the things I learned. I’m a person of faith; so that’s part of my life, too, a faith journey.
I tell students this all the time: try to do the best job you can do in your spot. Sometimes the spot you’re in is a small one, but if you do well with that, and you do it with passion and joy, people connect with that. People are influenced by what you write; and from a business perspective, [you get referrals from people saying] “you need to hear what that person wrote.” That’s happened to me so many times. I’m sure you know the same thing…
IAN SAINT: Absolutely. When I reflect on the number of examples that’s happened to me, it can take my breath away.
DAVID HAMILTON: So I don’t always get it right, but I’m trying to do the best job I’ve got. When I finally got asked to do this show with Dolly, I just tried to embrace it and say, “Okay, where am I going to go with this?” And that was sort of my “shining where I’m planted” right now. I do other kinds of music for other folks, which I love; but I was given this opportunity, and I thought, “Okay, I’m just gonna dive in 100% and go for it.”
IAN SAINT: Based on my interaction with Amy Grant, I’d imagine that she’s pretty hands-on with your collaborations. But if you’re used to that, I’d think it must be daunting to have this Threads assignment with Dolly — where you didn’t get a chance to meet her until after you finished arranging the show, and there’s going to be so much visibility of the show as she emerges from grieving her husband.
DAVID HAMILTON: Yeah, that’s true. I know Amy much better; I’ve done things closely with her. But at the same time, from a purely creative standpoint, I wouldn’t say it was that much different — and I think that’s a testament to both Amy’s and Dolly’s abilities as writers, and they both have wonderful teams of people around them that help them do what they’ve got to do.
Dolly’s team was very gracious to me when we were beginning to say, “Hey, we want to do these songs.” I’d reach out and say, “Can you send me some resources of the way Dolly performs the song now, versus maybe what she did before?” [Their responses to] those kind of things were super helpful. Same thing with Amy; I know I’ve played a lot with her, but I know the management and all of that really helps [with arranging]. Along the way, I sent demos of what I was writing to Dolly and her team, so there was still a process of collaborating — if they hear something they want to suggest [modifying], we talk about it. I do the same thing with Amy.
IAN SAINT: On the theme of doing a smaller job well, and being amazed at what that leads to: I recall that you arranged the strings on “From This Moment On” by Shania Twain, from the blockbuster Come On Over album. I bet in that moment, you hadn’t imagined Come On Over would become one of the Top 10 best-selling albums in global history.
DAVID HAMILTON: No, I hadn’t. [laugh]
IAN SAINT: What was it like to see that song you’d worked on become a Top 5 pop hit, with Shania’s vibrant music video? And to witness the album become a historic juggernaut?
DAVID HAMILTON: You know, it is such a thing to be grateful for. I was hired to come work on the session because they knew I could play and arrange, but I’d never actually met Shania before that day. I came in, we spent time together, I started doing my thing, and one thing leads to another. You put yourself all the way into it, but I had no idea at the time that it would take off to the place that it did. I was very, very grateful that Shania was very kind to me. She sent me a really kind note not too long after that session, thanking me for being a part of it — and I didn’t really know her that well, you know? So, yeah, those kinds of things happen sometimes. You just try to do your best work and be passionate about what’s right in front of you, then you have to let it go from there.
IAN SAINT: It speaks volumes how Shania did that before “From This Moment On” became a big hit for her. In that moment, she didn’t know how the song was going to perform commercially.
DAVID HAMILTON: She didn’t know. But she was very kind, and we made a small connection together in the studio with the other players. And it was very gracious of her to send me a note and say thanks afterwards. It meant the world to me that she’d do that.
IAN SAINT: The last thing I wanted to touch upon, not just because I’m a metalhead from Cleveland [laugh], but because it speaks to the breadth of your repertoire. I loved Metallica’s S&M orchestra collaboration album that they did with conductor Michael Kamen in 1999, before his untimely 2003 death. I think S&M was such a groundbreaking moment for broadening heavy metal’s appeal.
You collaborated with Metallica performing “One” at the 2014 Grammys with Chinese pianist Lang Lang, who played the cadenza you composed for the collaboration. What was that experience like?
DAVID HAMILTON: Crazy. It’s one of my most treasured memories. I was hired to write that for Lang Lang by the person who produced that particular part of the Grammys, Bob Ezrin. I’d worked with Bob Ezrin before — a wonderful, wonderful producer…
IAN SAINT: Oh! [gasp] Bob Ezrin co-produced The Wall for Pink Floyd, where Michael Kamen had done the string arrangement and orchestra conducting on “Comfortably Numb.”
DAVID HAMILTON: Yeah, Bob’s fantastic, and he’s done all kinds of big stuff. This was my first time I’d worked on something for Lang Lang. It was such a surreal day to go to that rehearsal and have this amazing classical artist playing this music that I’d written — and having the guys in Metallica stand around the piano and go, “There’s a classical piano player playing on our metal song.” [laugh] You know what I love the most? There was this amazing respect from two different worlds that were so opposite. They did not really get the intricacies of each other’s worlds, but there was a real respect in the room between them. I was there turning pages, going, “Wow, I’m pinching myself right here at this moment.” I’ll never forget the stage manager telling Lang Lang there’s going to be some pyro, and this classical pianist [reacting to] “You’re not going to get burned, but it’s going to be warm.” [laugh]
And I have been playing the piano my whole life. I grew up playing piano, and I studied classical piano in college. So I love being able to blend and cross musical genres with that. I’m speaking to the orchestra, but I also am a session player, so I know how to speak to the guys right behind me in the band – and I love that bridging of gaps.
IAN SAINT: So we’ve covered your country music work with Dolly, gospel with Amy, pop with Shania, classical piano with Lang Lang, and heavy metal with Metallica. Is there any genre that you haven’t done yet, but would like to?
DAVID HAMILTON: I would love to do some more jazz. I’ve made a solo jazz record, and I want to pursue that more; but I’m super grateful for lots of opportunities. I really am. I’m just trying to do my best work.
Dolly Parton’s Threads: My Songs in Symphony plays with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra at Morton Meyerson Symphony Center across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, October 24-26. Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.dallassymphony.org/productions/dolly-partons-threads-my-songs-in-symphony/. For more information on the Threads show, visit https://www.dollysymphony.com/.
Estimated reading time: 20 minutes
