Dolly released her 41st studio album "Better Day" on June 28, 2011, her fourth on her Dolly Records label. "Better Day" was Dolly’s first album of entirely original material since 1998’s "Hungry Again." All but one of the songs, "Country Is As Country Does" (written with Mac Davis), were exclusively composed and written by Dolly. Four of the album’s tracks were versions of songs she wrote for the Broadway musical "9 to 5" but had recorded--"I Just Might," "Shine Like the Sun," "Get Out and Stay Out," and "Let Love Grow." Randy Owen recorded "Holding Everything" on his 2008 debut album "One on One" while "Together You and I" was released as a duet with Porter Wagoner on the 1974 album "Porter 'n' Dolly." The other four songs appeared for the first time on "Better Day."
Writing more contemporary songs was one of Dolly’s goals,
“I always think every album is better than the last one... at least I strive for that. I wrote all the songs for this one, plus, I think it may be a little more contemporary than what I usually do.”
Dolly wrote the "Better Day" songs amid world crises and conflict which influenced her writing,
“Everybody’s so down in the dumps, and all this doomsday attitude with the economy so bad and all the wars and the bad weather... People really need to be uplifted a little bit right now.”
Dolly succeeded, as Steve Leggett wrote in his review,
“‘Better Day’... is an energetic, spiritual, and hopeful outing that rocks and soars with enough musical sunshine to light up even the grayest day.”
"Better Day" reached the Billboard Top 200 debuting at No. 51 (it debuted at No. 11 on the Top Country Albums Chart).
