Dolly Parton-rock Star?

On December 2, 2022, Dolly Parton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Yes, you read that right. Dolly Parton- country star, business woman, entrepreneur, children’s literacy advocate, is a rock star? 
 
Not so fast.  The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is not necessarily exclusive to rock & roll artists. Johnny Cash, Louis Armstrong, Chet Atkins and The Beach Boys are also in this hall. So the real story isn’t that Dolly has now joined these ranks (although it is a huge honor) but that she was inspired by this honor to record a rock album, appropriately titled Rockstar. 
 
One of the nine original songs on the thirty track album, “World on Fire”, was released on May 11 to promote the album, and was also performed live at the ACM awards show.
 
As far as modern songs go, it has a lot more substance than most. But I’m not sure it lives up the standard we expect from Dolly.  This song lacks the anguish of “Jolene” and the upbeat perkiness of ‘9 to 5’ and instead lands somewhere in the middle.

The song opens with these lyrics:
Liar, liar, world’s on fire, what you gonna do when it all burns down?
 Fire, fire burnin’ higher, Still got time to turn it all around.
 
The lyrics go on to describe the problem (politicians lie, people have turned away from God, frustrated people mistake protesting/activism for actual change).  All that is a true assessment of where we are in this country. My frustration is with her call to action:
 
Show some love
Rise above
Make a stand
Lend a hand
Heal the hurt
Let kindness work
Be a friend
Let hatred end
 
Reminding people to be kind to their neighbors is always a good thing, but Dolly has been a lot more direct in other songs, so why did she hold back this time? It is no secret that Dolly is a Christian. If she truly believes that a relationship with Jesus Christ is what saves a person, why not encourage her listeners to attend church, or at least read the Bible?

​It wasn’t too terribly long ago (2018) that Dolly’s music was the soundtrack for the movie Dumplin, which featured previously recorded songs and songs newly written for the movie. One song in particular, “Dumb Blonde”, has the line “just because I’m blonde don’t think I’m dumb/cause this dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool”
 
Now that is a clever lyric.
 
I’m hopeful that Dolly’s other original songs on Rockstar contain similarly witty lyrics. Time will tell.