Dolly Parton’s first posthumous song has been released weeks after her passing.
The late country music icon, who died on August 25 at the age of 80, took part in a tribute album for The Stanley Brothers called “Where the Soul Never Dies: Celebrating 80 Years of The Stanley Brothers.” The bluegrass duo was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame this year, according to Rolling Stone.
Parton recorded the song “Bound to Ride” in 2022 for the album’s upcoming release next month.
Dolly Parton Recorded ‘Bound to Ride’ Amid COVID Surge
While most of the album’s songs were recorded live in the studio, Parton recorded her vocals ahead of time due to a spike in COVID-19 cases at the time, the outlet reported.
The posthumous song, “Bound to Ride,” also features the all-female bluegrass supergroup First Ladies of Bluegrass. The band’s fiddle player, Becky Buller, sang Parton’s part for a demo so the country icon could hear the song in the right key and collaborate with the band without putting her health at risk during the pandemic.
“I call it the full Dolly,” Garry West, bassist and owner of Compass Records, the company behind Where the Soul Never Dies, told Rolling Stone. “We didn’t know what we would get back, and she really did over-deliver. We were shocked. We couldn’t have gotten anything better.”
“Where the Soul Never Dies: Celebrating 80 Years of The Stanley Brothers” featuring Parton’s first posthumous song is out October 16, 2026.
How Dolly Parton Wanted to Be Remembered After Her Passing
On Thursday, Parton’s sister, Stella Parton, explained why the “Jolene” singer chose to keep her cancer diagnosis private.
“Well, Dolly did not want anybody to tell that because Dolly could not bear negative things and she would not have wanted her fans worried about it,” Stella told CBS Mornings. “She didn’t want a lot of the family worried about it. Some of us knew, the ones that were closer, but not every relative.”
Stella added that the public outpouring of love and grief would please her beloved sister.
“She’d be really happy and delighted that people have shown her so much love because she knew that would make us feel better as her family,” she continued. “Bottom line, end of the day, her family and Carl’s family and probably Judy’s family are the people that she would want to say, ‘See, everything I did, they cared. They really loved me.'”
Parton had previously spoken about how she wanted to be remembered after her death. In a 2014 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the legendary singer revealed that she had already chosen the song she wanted played at her funeral: “If We Never Meet Again.”
“It’s an old country-gospel church song that talks about if we never meet again [on] this side of heaven, I will meet you on that beautiful shore,” she told the outlet. “Where the charming roses bloom forever and where separations come no more.”
Parton continued, “That was my daddy’s favorite. We did sing it at his funeral, and I would like it to be sung at mine.”
