It’s easy to get distracted by what lies on the surface of country music icon Dolly Parton. There’s the bubbly personality, the copious locks and her more-than-ample, um, endowments.
Yet Parton is first and foremost a creative force, a singer-songwriter with a bountiful catalog that has producers regularly combing through it to find material for other artists. Back in the day, she even turned down Col. Tom Parker’s deal for Elvis Presley to record one of her songs, because she wouldn’t relinquish the rights.
Parton’s career spans more than 40 years with no signs of slowing. Her latest release, “Better Day,” features all-original material. And in January of next year, “Joyful Noise,” a film she shot in Atlanta, hits theaters. In the meantime, Parton makes tracks on the concert trail with a local stop on August 3.
Q: You shot the movie "Joyful Noise" in Atlanta. What do you like most about the city?
A: We had a great time. I love Atlanta. I like the people, I like the restaurants, I like the shops, I like everything about it. I like the energy of Atlanta like everybody does. There's great nightlife, great food and great fun. I was really tickled, because I had always wanted a reason to spend a lot of time in Atlanta, because I had just been in and out of there visiting friends or just for long weekends or something. But we got three months filming "Joyful Noise," and it was absolutely great. I cannot wait for this movie to come out.
Q: Your new album features 12 of your own compositions. With a career as long and as rich as yours, as a songwriter, how do you keep material fresh?
A: I love to write. ...I write all of the time, and I have such a catalog of songs. Some of the songs on this new album I have come back to, three or four of them, from the Broadway musical that I couldn't wait to record. When I started thinking about going on tour and making a CD, I thought about people needing to be uplifted in this day and time, so I wrote a few new pieces. But a lot of the songs I just went back and knew that these were a lot of positive songs that I've always wanted to do. And so I wrote a song called "Better Day," which is actually the title of the album. It's one of the very new songs. So I love writing. I've been writing since I was about 7 years old. Mama said I was writing before I can remember, just singing and rhyming and stuff. Life is a song to me, and it's just what I love to do.
Q: You've hinted that there are going to be some new and different segments and some surprises in your live show. Anything you can reveal to us?
A: We do all of the songs people want to hear: "9 to 5," "Coat of Many Colors," "Islands in the Stream." We're actually going to be doing four or five songs from the new CD. And we're going to be doing a little segment when we do some medleys and some of the songs from the "Joyful Noise" movie. We're going to be showing some of the photos and clips from the movie. I'll be doing a little more choreography than I usually do in my shows. Folks may get a kick out of seeing me do something a little different. We're going to be doing a bluegrass segment in the show when we come down front and several of the guys bring their bluegrass instruments, and we do some bluegrass things. Of course we try to have our little comedy bits. We have our spiritual, inspirational, gospel-type things. I really think we have something for everybody, and enough difference to flavor it up and not be so redundant with the things we've done the last two or three times we've been out.
8 p.m. Aug. 3. $39.60-$113.10. Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park, 2200 Encore Parkway, Alpharetta. 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.
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