![\"Dolly](\"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/0829-you-dolly.jpg\" "\\"Dolly")
Down in Nashville Tuesday morning, Edmontonian country singer Mariel Buckley’s partner ran out of her home office in tears: “Dolly’s dead!”
“She cries quite a lot easier than I do,” says recent Juno Award-winning Buckley . “I’m very soft in song and very stiff in person. But she had these big tears and I’m not really much of a griever for celebrities, but this is different.”
Already sharing a cactus named Carl for Dolly Parton’s late husband Carl Dean – who the singer will be buried next to in soft cotton – Buckley and her partner set up a little shrine of records and, because love is like one, a butterfly in glass.
Nashville, meanwhile, grieves the superstar icon large and openly.
“There’s just vigils everywhere,” says Buckley. “The bars were immediately doing things like a tribute show over in at one of the major bars over in East Nashville, Skinny Dennis (Tuesday) night. She was just synonymous with this city.
“It’s very interesting to be here right now because it’s hitting this city hard.”
Of course, the impact is far and wide, Buckley notes.
“The gay community especially is taking a hit this week,” she says, interviewed a couple hours after news spread of Tim Curry’s death , also at 80 years.
“As a country musician, Dolly is a pretty staple artist to be listening to,” says Buckley. “But she’s always been synonymous with the drag community, which I’m obviously not a member of, but there’s always been a lot of parroting of her looks, especially by queer people.
“And she’s not only been really warm and receptive to that, she did a really good job of never waving a picket sign – yet always let you know exactly where she stood and who she was standing up for.
“There are a number of quotes throughout the years, just her saying like, you know I have people in my family and on my team that are from all backgrounds, and I don’t care about any of that.
“And her also being such a strong, obvious Christian woman, we in the queer community don’t have many allies in the Christian culture. So for her to not only be one of the biggest country singers of all time, one of the biggest pop singers, to be so synonymous with like hilarious big boobs and big blonde wigs and fun outfits – very big with the queer community – and to have her be a god-following Appallacian woman who’s in support… there’s just nobody who covered that much ground and appealed to that many while sticking up for queer people.”
Growing up in Calgary before moving to Edmonton, Buckley learned the inside of a number of Parton’s songs. “She’s just written so many f—ing songs, so certainly she would be an inspiration. It would be impossible for her not to be, especially when I was doing lots of cover gigs and playing bars.
“It’s just such a crazy, crazy catalogue. There’s basically nobody that prolific.”
“Especially those trio records I got really into as well,” says Buckley of Parton’s work with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, “that taught me all about harmony and stuff.
“So yeah, I mean, you can’t exist in folk and country and not be influenced by Dolly.”
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Emma Frazier, co-owner and manager of Dolly’s Cocktail Bar – and like Buckley, a truly beautiful singer – rather agrees.
Her Barbie-pink bar at 9902 109 St. is not specifically Parton-themed, though it certainly shares her first name on purpose.
“My parents weren’t super into country growing up, but my mom loved Dolly just kind of more for who she was,” Frazier explains. “How amazing a person she is, helping kids learn to read and stuff like that. That’s kind of how my mom rolls, too.”
Frazier – a country fan since elementary school who wears dazzling country outfits in cover bands Twain Gretzky Overdrive and The Silver Wedding Band – often sings 9 to 5 and Islands in the Stream, plus deeper cuts like Potential New Boyfriend and 1978’s Baby I’m Burnin’.
The singer, who also did burlesque for years, talks about Parton’s influence on her style. “I’ve always been in the mindset of go big or go home, and western gear is kind of my favourite.
“Dolly Parton was always so fearless, and just herself, which was really inspiring.”
Dolly’s was originally going to be named Mimi’s after Frazier’s basement bar at home until Daniel Costa’s bar Mimi was announced down Jasper Avenue.
“Dolly’s was our backup idea,” Frazier laughs, “and because, like, I love her so much – I have a giant photo of her in my basement bar – it just kind of made sense.”
Local singer Lauren Gillis – who on stage goes by her grandmother’s name Lucette – also has hearts in her eyes talking about Parton.
“I absolutely worship Dolly,” says Gillis. “Her songwriting and her legacy, both as a person and an artist. I regrettably never got to see Dolly. I had tickets to see her play, but my boss at the time wouldn’t give me the night off. The concert was right down the street, too.
“My mom took my grandmother Lucette, and they had nothing but amazing things to say. It was one of the first shows at Rogers Place , and I’m still bitter about it,” she laughs.
“Dolly has touched so many people’s lives, and when I think about a true songwriter-first artist, she will always be the pinnacle. I’ve gotten to know people who have worked with her personally,” says the singer, who also frequents Nashville as a collaborative songwriter, “and no one has ever had an ill word to say about her.
“When I think about Dolly, I just think of joy. Think about the song I Will Always Love You. She made heartbreak into: ‘I hope life treats you kind, and I hope that you have all that you’ve dreamed of. I wish you joy and happiness, but above all this, I wish you love.’”
![\"](\"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/0829-you-dolly-3.jpg\" "\\"")
Of these gifted local singers, only heartache-country singer Jody Shenkarek saw Parton perform live, in Edmonton at Rogers Place just a few weeks shy of 10 years ago – the others wailing in various ways, including broken-heart emojis as I set up these interviews.
Shenkarek’s view of the show is, honestly, jarring and funny, like the singer herself.
“The show was horrible,” Shenkarek laughs through a headache. “The venue ruined it and I was completely overwhelmed. She was a tiny white dot in a weird venue.”
But, noting Parton was “pure of heart,” Shenkarek praises Parton’s musical soul.
“She was playful enough to make every performance authentic, meaningful. She believed everyone had a unique voice and everyone should let their light shine.
“So likely,” says the singer, “she inspired me through her career as a woman that would not bend or step on others to fit in.
“Lift others, lift yourself, be kind, see life’s funny side.”
“She was a queen. And she is a queen,” Shenkarek adds.
“And I’d rather live like her, spreading kindness.”
She pauses for a second, then laughs, “Oh! Also all her movies! Whoa! Stick it to the man!”
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