SINCE signing to Sugar Hill Records and taking to a song-writing hideaway in the East Tennessee mountains, Dolly Parton has re-discovered her roots - relax, the hair is still fantastically blonde - to make her best, bluest bluegrass music in 30 years. First, Grass Is Blue, next Little Sparrow and now the self-produced Halos & Horns, and this time the talking point is the finale, her acoustic country-gospel re-casting of the Led Zeppelin behemoth Stairway To Heaven. Far from being a strained novelty to rival Rolf Harris, Dolly goes for the heart of the wild beast armed only with that quiverin' voice and a choral army. Some stairway, some heaven. A second choice of cover, Bread's If, is an iffy song beyond even Dolly's lipstick kiss of life, but she more successfully re-visits two old Parton numbers, What A Heartache and Shattered Image. In the new Dolly mixture, she goes uptempo in the bluegrass fields of Dagger Through The Heart and I'm Gone; tickles the tear glands on ballads If Only And Not For Me; stokes up the gospel fervour on John Daniel, Hello God and Raven Done; has fun adopting an Appalachian soothsayer's croak on These Old Bones; and is at her most Dolly on Halos & Horns, a hillbilly waltz about human frailty. This is Dolly mountain music with new peaks.

From the revitalised to the fresh: Tift Merritt, a 27-year-old torch singer, songwriter and guitarist from North Carolina via Texas, who wanted to "make an album in the style of early Linda Ronstadt, early Emmylou Harris and early Bonnie Raitt". She has; on occasion supplanted by the cracked pepper of a Maria McKee or Lucinda Williams, but better still her Bramble Rose debut reveals a classic country songwriting talent. Add her to Neko Case, Laura Cantrell and Kasey Chambers as an off-country traveller determined to avoid the treacle traffic of Nashville schmaltz.

On her first British tour since 1983, Dolly presents An Evening With Dolly Parton and her new band, The Blueniques, at Manchester Bridgewater Hall on October 26. Box office: 0161 907 9000.

Updated: 09:53 Thursday, August 01, 2002