Christmas came early for Dolly in 2013 as she filmed part of the Lifetime movie "A Country Christmas Story" at Dollywood. The movie highlights the story of a young bi-racial girl following in her father’s footsteps to become a musician as she participates in a singing contest held at Dollywood. Dolly wrote some of the songs featured in the movie and said,
“It’s a sweet original movie, and I like just being able to play my music, be part of whatever I’m doing. I did write some of the music for this little show. And I enjoy getting to act a little bit. It’s just fun. I do different stuff.”
The story reunites a family--Grace, her grandmother Sarah (Mary Kay Place), her estranged musician father Danny (Brian McNight) and her mother Jenny (Megyn Price)--through music and showcases some of the musical history of African-American contributions to country music. Dolly plays herself as the emcee and host of the singing contest at Dollywood. She also wrote two original songs-- "Fiddlin' Around" and "Miss You, Miss Me" --which are performed in the movie.
Dolly recorded "Miss You, Miss Me" on her 42nd studio album, "Blue Smoke."
Dolly starred as Leanna Taylor in her made-for-television movie, "Blue Valley Songbird" and worked behind the scenes as the film’s executive producer.
The movie aired on Lifetime in November of 1999. Leanna Taylor is a Nashville singer who uses her music to face her troubled upbringing. Dolly’s inspiration came from her song "Blue Valley Songbird" on her album "Hungry Again." Dolly said,
“As soon as I wrote the song, I had full intentions of making a movie from it… In my mind, I thought, 'This is like a screenplay.'”
Dolly took a hands-on approach to the project.
"I was very involved… And I promoted shooting the movie in Nashville from day one. I was thrilled that we could film it here… I felt it was very important to find Southern people to write this script… The writers we chose were both from the South, so they had an understanding of it."
While there is no official soundtrack, a number of the songs in the movie are available on Dolly’s album "Hungry Again."
