[Cover photo features Dolly Parton and Avie Lee Parton]
Owepar Entertainment has released a piece of Appalachian musical history with the reissue of Avie Lee Parton’s Smoky Mountain Mama. Avie Lee Parton was the matriarch of the Parton family was also a gifted vocalist, arranger and interpreter of traditional mountain songs, all of which are showcased on Smoky Mountain Mama.
Avie Lee Parton raised a family of 12 children, many of whom would go on to successful musical careers, but her own roots in performance stretched back to her youth in East Tennessee. As a teenager, she sang alongside her sisters Estelle and Dorothy Jo in a Gospel trio guided by their father, Rev. Jake Owens. The group performed at churches, revival meetings, and local radio programs throughout the Smoky Mountains region.
Even as she focused on raising a family, music was always a vital part of Avie Lee’s life. During the late 1960s, she formed a Gospel group with daughters Willadeene, Stella, and Cassie, who recorded the family project The Parton Family Sings In The Garden (reissued by Owepar in 2024). Years later, encouraged by both her brother Louis Owens and daughter Dolly, Avie Lee went back into the studio to preserve the mountain ballads and folk songs she had spent decades singing.
The recordings that would eventually become Smoky Mountain Mama were captured in Nashville during sessions overseen by Louis Owens. Guitarist Harry Robinson, a longtime member of Dolly Parton’s touring band, contributed to portions of the recordings. While formal documentation could not be found, other family members are believed to have added instrumental accompaniment and harmony vocals.
While she toured a bit in the late 1970’s, Avie Lee ultimately chose to remain outside the spotlight. Even after family members became featured performers in Dollywood’s “Kin Folks” productions during the 1980s, she appeared only occasionally, preferring a quieter life close to home.
Demand from visitors to the park later inspired Louis Owens to compile many of her recordings into pair of cassette-only releases sold through Dollywood and Dolly Parton’s mail-order catalog in 1990. Combining material from both the earlier studio recordings enhanced with additional instrumentation and the later Nashville sessions, Smoky Mountain Mama and its companion Gospel collection were produced in extremely small quantities. They eventually became collector’s items among Parton family historians and Appalachian music enthusiasts.
This newly restored Smoky Mountain Mama has been sourced from a surviving quarter-inch reel-to-reel master used for the original cassette production and carefully remastered. The release offers a unique opportunity to hear Avie Lee Parton’s personal interpretations of traditional Smoky Mountain music.
Avie Lee Parton – Smoky Mountain Mama
Track Listing
1. The Wedding Bells
2. Little Rosewood Casket
3. The Eastbound Train
4. Three Babes
5. Orphan Girl
6. Pretty Fair Miss
7. The Blind Child
8. Two Orphans
9. Little Bessie
