Live from London

Personnel: Richie Owens (guitar, steel guitar, dobro); Kent Wells (acoustic guitar, electric guitar); Dave Talbot (acoustic guitar, banjo); Jimmy Mattingly (acoustic guitar, fiddle); Paul Hollowell (piano); Vicki Hampton, Richard Dennison (background vocals).
Audio Mixer: Frank Filipetti.
Recorded on her 2008 Backwoods Barbie tour, the 2009 CD/DVD set Live from London is Dolly Parton's first live release since 2004's Live and Well. That generous 23-track collection arrived on the heels of her turn-of-the-millennium trio of bluegrass albums and appropriately drew deeply on that trilogy, whereas this casts the net a little wider, retaining some of that mountain music but adding more classic hits along with several selections from Backwoods Barbie, of course. That 2008 album was her poppiest in a spell, so it follows that Live from London is also a big glitzy production, with Parton coming out to the strains of "Hello Dolly" and supported by legions of backing vocalists, guitarists, and keyboardists. It's not intimate; it's a crowd-pleasing extravaganza delivered by an old pro who knows how to give the audience, whether they're in the arena or listening at home, exactly what they want. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine