Dolly Parton’s Music and Giving Spirit Fill O+ Exchange

by Robert Brune

KINGSTON — Shortly before 6 p.m. Sunday, with only a handful of people inside the O+ Exchange on Wall Street, O+ co-founder Joe Concra looked around the room and admitted a small concern: “I hope people show up tonight.”

He needn’t have worried. By the time the DO+LLY Parton Tribute began, the storefront was filled to capacity, washed in saturated pink, magenta and purple light as gentle rain fell outside. Beyond the windows, Wall Street had grown nearly silent, while inside musicians and admirers packed together to celebrate the music and memory of Dolly Parton. Lara Hope, sporting a towering platinum-blonde Dolly wig and leopard print, joined author Holly George-Warren to welcome the crowd for an evening that became as much about Parton’s generosity and humanity as the songs themselves.

The connection between Parton and O+ extended well beyond music. For 16 years, the Kingston-based nonprofit has built its mission around exchanging art and music for healthcare, providing artists and musicians access to medical, dental, mental health and wellness services. O+ now operates a year-round Exchange Clinic in Kingston in addition to the healthcare services provided during its annual festival.

George-Warren told the audience that Parton would have appreciated what O+ represented. “Dolly would be so incredibly happy about this event tonight, because she was all about giving,” she said. “This O+ is such a Dolly type of an organization.”

Parton’s philanthropy included substantial support for healthcare, including pediatric care and infectious disease research at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her $1 million gift for COVID-19 research helped fund early work connected to development and testing of the Moderna vaccine.

For George-Warren, however, the evening was also deeply personal. She worked with Parton on the 2023 book Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones, which explored Parton’s distinctive fashion and the determination behind creating her public image.

George-Warren recalled spending considerable time with Parton while working on the book and discovering that the warmth audiences associated with her public persona continued when the cameras were gone. “I have to tell y’all that she was the real deal,” George-Warren said. She described Parton as possessing a “real pure heart,” while also remembering an ambitious musician, songwriter and storyteller who fought throughout her career for the freedom to present herself exactly as she wanted.

That personal connection gave George-Warren’s role as host an unusual intimacy. Rather than simply announcing performers, she guided the audience through Parton’s life and music, sharing stories behind the songs as the evening moved chronologically through her career.

Singer Xe Davis opened the musical journey with “Just Because I’m a Woman,” followed by Hope and Christian Smythe performing “Dumb Blonde” and “Something Fishy Going On.” Sara La Duke later performed “I Will Always Love You,” a song that reached an even wider audience decades later through Whitney Houston’s recording.

George-Warren also shared one of the remarkable stories from Parton’s songwriting career, explaining the connection between “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene.” Parton recalled that the two songs appeared back-to-back on an old cassette and believed she may have written them during the same extraordinary period of songwriting.

Robert Burke Warren then brought “Jolene” into the intimate O+ room at a softer, slightly slower tempo. As he invited the audience to join him, voices throughout the storefront answered the familiar chorus, transforming one of Parton’s best-known songs into one of the evening’s quieter and more emotional moments.

Lori Mendelis, who traveled from New York City for the tribute, performed “Coat of Many Colors,” bringing the audience into one of the most personal stories Parton ever put to music. George-Warren introduced it as Parton’s favorite among the thousands of songs she wrote. The song recalls the coat Parton’s mother stitched together from scraps when she was a child, and the pride Parton felt wearing it despite being mocked by classmates. Parton repeatedly identified “Coat of Many Colors” as her favorite composition.

Throughout the evening, the songs were offered less as impersonations than acts of affection and remembrance for an artist whose death Aug. 25 prompted tributes far beyond country music. Parton was 80. Her legacy encompassed songwriting, performing, acting and business, but also decades of philanthropy supporting children, literacy, healthcare and communities in need.

For O+, the packed Sunday evening tribute also served as something of a prelude. The organization returns to Kingston Oct. 9–11 for its annual three-day O+ Festival, bringing music, visual art, wellness programming and healthcare together throughout the city. O+ describes its model as an exchange in which participating artists and volunteers receive access to healthcare while contributing their creative work to the community.

It was an idea particularly suited to a night honoring Parton. Outside, the rain continued to fall over an almost empty Wall Street. Inside 334 Wall Street, there was barely an empty space to be found, as a room full of people demonstrated that the legacy of a songwriter can live not only through the songs she left behind, but through the generosity those songs continue to inspire.