Gillian Welch & David Rawlings Cover Dolly Parton For Country Music Hall Of Fame

The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum released a new episode of its Studio B Side Sessions series featuring Gillian Welch and David Rawlings performing Dolly Parton's “Coat of Many Colors” at Nashville’s Historic RCA Studio B. The video, recorded in February of this year, arrived shortly after Parton’s death last month at age 80.

Welch and Rawlings recorded their acclaimed 2001 album, Time (The Revelator), at Studio B over several months in late 2000 and early 2001. Parton recorded “Coat of Many Colors” in the same room on April 27, 1971, with producer Bob Ferguson and a group of ace Nashville musicians.

Welch explained her connection to “Coat of Many Colors,” stating:

“There are so many incredible songs that were recorded in this room, but that one immediately jumped out at me. First of all, Dolly is the most incredible songwriter. I think I connect with that song partially because there’s a thread in it of not understanding why people don’t see the world the way you do. And I often feel that way. And so I kind of think that’s where I connect with [‘Coat of Many Colors.’]”

Rawlings followed with his own take on the song:

“There aren’t a lot of songs in the world that the first time you hear them, you understand that you’re hearing an incredible piece of human communication, that someone is showing you a whole world in one little vignette and that it will actually shape the way that you think, that you will look at the world slightly differently. And that’s one of those songs.

“I can think of 20 songs that are like that: that there’s the time before you heard them and then you hear it. And then if anyone mentioned that song to you from then until the end of your life, you’re never going to forget that song. You never forget what the feeling that it brings up is.”

In addition to the Parton cover, Welch and Rawlings’ session at the storied recording facility also saw the pair perform their song, “Elvis Presley Blues,” which appeared on Time (The Revelator). Watch their Studio B Side Sessions episode below: