My Family's Surprising Tie to Dolly Parton

Writing My Magic Tux has meant digging into all kinds of Tennessee history and lore for Tuxie's adventures — but one piece of that history hits closer to home than most. It turns out my own uncles helped give Dolly Parton her very first stage.

My uncles, Charlie and Danny Bailey, were known as the Bailey Brothers and the Happy Valley Boys — a bluegrass duo out of Happy Valley, Tennessee who helped pioneer the tight harmony singing style that's still a hallmark of bluegrass today. Long before Dolly Parton was a household name, she was just a kid from East Tennessee, ten years old, stepping up to sing alongside my uncles' band.

Dolly’s first Grand Ole Opry performance

That happened on the Cas Walker Farm and Home Hour, a radio and television show out of WROL in Knoxville hosted by Cas Walker, a Knoxville grocer and politician who gave a launchpad to just about every East Tennessee country and bluegrass act of the era. The Bailey Brothers and the Happy Valley Boys were regulars on Walker's show, and they were the ones backing up young Dolly during those early guest appearances — some of her very first experience in front of a live audience. That stage time helped build the confidence that eventually carried her to her Grand Ole Opry debut in 1959.

A letter to J.R. Greene from Dolly Parton.

It's a pretty wild thing to sit with: my family was there, in some small way, at the very beginning of Dolly Parton's story. The Bailey Brothers went on to become respected figures in early bluegrass in their own right, performing on the Grand Ole Opry and popularizing songs later recorded by Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Flatt and Scruggs.

So when Dolly makes an appearance in Tuxie's adventures in My Magic Tux, it's more than just a nod to Tennessee history — it's a little bit of my own family's story too.