KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Country music icon, East Tennessee native and now-novelist Dolly Parton has released her 48th studio album Friday, “Run, Rose, Run” that accompanies the soon-to-be-released novel of the same name the superstar co-authored with bestselling author James Patterson.
The album “Run, Rose, Run” came out Friday, March 4 on streaming platforms as well as via physical audio copies. It’s a companion piece to the Parton-Patterson novel of the same name that is slated for release on Monday, March 7.
Parton had previously released two singles from the album: “Big Dreams and Faded Jeans” in January and “Blue Bonnet Breeze” in February.
“Run, Rose, Run” tells the story of a young singer-songwriter on the rise in Nashville, Tenn. who sings about the hard life behind her, according to the novel synopsis, and “she’s also on the run. Find a future, lose a past. Nashville is where she’s come to claim her destiny. It’s also where the darkness she’s fled might find her. And destroy her.” The Southern fiction thriller is available for pre-order online before its Monday release.
The novel is Parton’s first and her love of books and sharing stories has been a long practice of hers for decades. Parton has often said in interviews and in her 2020 book, “Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics” that songwriting was like telling stories from her time growing up in East Tennessee as well as later in her career as she gained new experiences.
Her love of books and sharing them with children through her nonprofit, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library has been an ongoing passion project for the superstar since its 1995 launch in Sevier County. By 2020, the nonprofit had gifted its 150 millionth book.
Parton has stated on her social media that the “Run, Rose, Run” album “and its stories mean so much to me and it’s a blessing to be able to tell them.”
A virtual book tour is kicking off Sunday, March 6.
Another East Tennessee native, country singer Kelsea Ballerini has joined Parton for the “Run, Rose, Run” audiobook in voicing one of the novel’s characters. Ballerini will also join Parton to perform the first single from the album, “Big Dreams and Faded Jeans” at the 57th Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas, which Dolly Parton is co-hosting.
