This opinion piece, written by Caitlin Flanagan, reminisces about attending Dolly Parton's concert at the San Rafael Civic Center in 1977. The author and her friend Annie were among the few who recognized Parton's talent before she gained national recognition with the movie "9 to 5". Parton's early career was marked by performances on the variety show "Hee Haw", where she showcased her singing abilities alongside other notable country music artists. Born in a rural Tennessee cabin, Parton grew up surrounded by bluegrass music, which would later become a defining aspect of her career.
Written by the local model on 2026-08-26,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Dolly Parton's early fans, including Caitlin Flanagan and her friend Annie, were part of a small group in the Bay Area who appreciated her music before she gained national recognition. The two girls saw Dolly Parton perform at the San Rafael Civic Center in 1977, when her popularity was still limited to a niche audience. At that time, there was a divide between the South and the rest of America, with few people paying attention to each other's culture. A TV show called Hee Haw tried to bridge this gap by showcasing country music and comedy from the South, but it was seen as out-of-touch and "cornpone" compared to shows like Laugh-In. Despite its rough start, Hee Haw featured talented performers such as Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash, and Dolly Parton themselves, who were among the best in country music at the time.
Written for “Dolly Parton Tribute” on 2026-08-31,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
The model judged this article politically coded and scored it +0.35, but every quote it verified points left, so the score is not published.
Written under an earlier scoring contract, which gave a paragraph
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Leaning score withheld for article 2525: score contradicts its own evidence · logged 2026-08-27
The first concert I ever went to was at the San Rafael Civic Center, and the performer was Dolly Parton.
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performer → go → Center
This was the Bay Area, 1977, and the notion that Dolly Parton might have a wide, national appeal—let alone a San Francisco Bay Area appeal—was years away.
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Parton → let → appeal
But my friend Annie and I were two 16-year-old girls who weren’t following the herd.
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who → follow → herd
When it came to taste, we were on our own.
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we → come → own
That same year, we’d gone to see professional wrestling at the Cow Palace.
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we → go → Palace
We were weirdos, and we knew what we liked.
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we → know → what
Berkeley had many cults, but the Dolly Parton cult was a two-girl operation.
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cult → have → cults
This was before the movie 9 to 5 gave Dolly Parton some national recognition.
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movie → give → recognition
In those days, the South and the rest of America were eager to ignore each other’s existence.
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South → ignore → existence
There was a weekly variety show called Hee Haw, which was meant as a deep-South version of Laugh-In, except that Laugh-In was cool—it had go-go dancers and nightclub comics—and Hee Haw was beyond square.
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Haw → be → dancers
But some of the best music in the country was performed on that show every week: Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash and Charlie Pride and sometimes a young Dolly Parton.
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some → perform → show
The thing about Dolly—the reason Annie and I loved her so much, and from the very beginning—was that that woman could sing.
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woman → love → beginning
She could really, really sing.
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She → sing → ?
If you don’t know what we fell in love with, stop everything and listen to her recording of Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8).
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we → know → Blues
Any questions you might have about how she got so far in her life will be answered.
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she → have → life
At the root of that massive career that came to stand for so many things was a great voice and a childhood drenched in one of the great American art forms: bluegrass music.
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voice → come → forms
Dolly Parton was born in 1946 in a Tennessee holler, the fourth of 12 children born to an illiterate sharecropper turned subsistence farmer, in a one-room cabin on the banks of the Little Pigeon River, a way of life so remote from the modern American one that it seems like something from a children’s book.
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it → bear → book
