Throughout their respective seven-decade careers, Bob Dylan and Dolly Parton have followed parallel pathways. Early on, both Dylan and Dolly took control of their careers, refusing to allow others to define them. As their careers developed, each has gone through continuous renewal and reinventions, often defying expectations placed on them. Now, both have enjoyed late-career fecundity that has cemented their position and influence across the American cultural landscape. However, despite this, they have had little interaction with each other beyond Dolly Parton’s covers of Dylan’s songs. In this episode, Dolly Parton scholar, Dr. Dusty Hixenbaugh talks with me about his work, and the intersections between Dolly and Dylan, their music, and identity construction. We only scratch the surface of crossovers between the two. With so much ground left to cover, I hope Dusty will be a return guest to finish the discussion.
Bio:
Dustin (or Dusty) Hixenbaugh is a professor of English at San Jacinto College, where he teaches courses in American literature, humanities, and composition. He hails from Cheyenne, Wyoming, but has lived in many places including Carbondale, Illinois, where he earned Bachelor’s degrees in English and Spanish from Southern Illinois University; the Rio Grande Valley, Texas, where he taught high school English and was named the La Joya Independent School District’s “Teacher of the Year” (2009); and Austin, Texas, where he earned his Master’s degree and PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Texas. He has explored music in a number of writing projects including as the founder and editor of the Country Music Project blog, which was active on the University of Texas Department of Rhetoric and Writing’s website from 2014 to 2016 and, most recently, as coauthor of an article published in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners about music therapy. He lives with his family in Friendswood, Texas.
Links:
Recent profile on the San Jac website: “Music Syncs Words and Wellness”
New article: “Prescribing Music as an Adjunctive Treatment” with Rhonda Winegar
Media coverage of this article at The Brighter Side & MSN’s Indonesian site.
Article referencing Dylan: “The Times They Are(n’t) a-Changin’: Judith Ortiz Cofer on the False Promises of the Revolutionary 1960s”
Country Music Project (blog I hosted at UT Austin from 2014-2016)
Some posts I contributed to the blog are: “Disney-Country Collaborations”, “Country Fans Turn on Tim McGraw”, and “Still a Fujiyama Mama”.
Lastly, folks can find me on Substack at dustinhixenbaugh
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