Legendary country singer Dolly Parton made her way to Cincinnati many times in her long career, even if there were a few delays.
It took four attempts to get her and Kenny Rogers together for a joint concert at Riverfront Coliseum (now Heritage Bank Center) in 1986, where they sang their hit duet, “Islands in the Stream.”
She was worth the wait.
“She didn’t disappoint,” wrote Larry Nager of the Cincinnati Post, “bubbling onstage in all her vanilla splendor – white-blonde wig in a modified bouffant; white, low-cut dress covered in red and white beaded fringe; creamy skin and impossibly buxom figure.”
Dolly – as most know her – was a down-home original under the glitzy wig and makeup. She often spoke of her hard-scrabble upbringing in the Smoky Mountains
and wasn’t afraid to poke fun at herself.
During a 1977 show at Northern Kentucky University, she noted a few concertgoers in Regents Hall with binoculars. “I know what you’re lookin’ at,” she said. “You had to see if they were as big as somebody told you. I’m talkin’ about my wigs.”
Parton got her big start on Porter Wagoner’s musical variety television show in 1967, and she toured with his road show, making several stops in Cincinnati from 1968 to 1974, at Music Hall or the Taft Theatre.
With the success of her hit song “Jolene” in 1974, Dolly branched out on her own. She returned to Cincinnati several times.
Dolly Parton concerts in Cincinnati
- March 24, 1968, at Music Hall, with “The Porter Wagoner Show.”
- March 16, 1969, at Taft Theatre, with “The Porter Wagoner Show.”
- Feb. 1, 1970, at Music Hall, with “The Porter Wagoner Show.”
- Sept. 23, 1972, a Taft Theatre, with “The Porter Wagoner Show.”
- Feb. 9, 1974, at Taft Theatre, with “The Porter Wagoner Show.”
- Nov. 22, 1975, at Taft Theatre.*
- Dec. 4, 1976, at Taft Theatre, with the Statler Brothers.*
- Nov. 15, 1977, at Northern Kentucky University’s Regents Hall.
- April 27, 1986, at Riverfront Coliseum (Heritage Bank Center), with Kenny Rogers and Lee Greenwood.
- May 4, 1990, at Riverfront Coliseum, with Kenny Rogers.
- Sept. 18, 1992, at Riverbend Music Center.
- June 11, 2016, at Jack Casino (Hard Rock Casino).
(*The shows in 1975 and 1976 were announced in The Enquirer but do not appear in online databases like Concert Archive or Setlist.)
Enquirer contributor Chris Varias wrote about Dolly in advance of her 2016 concert – her last in Cincinnati:
“It’s not been hard to cheer for Parton, whose playful banter is one of her many sides. As great a songwriter and vocalist as she is, those talents might be overlooked because of her bubbly persona and her other pursuits in entertainment. Songwriting isn’t the first thing most people think of when they think about her. It’s probably not the second thing, either, even though Parton is in the company of Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard as one of the great country songwriters of the past 50 years.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: In 1977, Dolly Parton saw binoculars in the crowd. 'I know what you’re lookin’ at'
