Dolly Parton: The — travails of dualism

SINCE SHE first hit the country Top 20 with 'Something Fishy', Dolly Parton has earned a reputation as one of the best songwriters in country music, up there with the likes of Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson. Indeed, while Haggard and others often play too hard at being the poet (the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville has on display an engraving of a ludicrous let-me-count-the-wayser that Merle presented to Julie Nixon as a birthday gift), the only blemishes on Dolly's record have been her infrequent flirtations with country's sugar 'n' crinoline school, such as her recent 'Love Is Like a Butterfly' (a simile for all seasons if ever there were one).