Paul Smeenus

This is what country music does best IMO. Before she was ruined by the big Nashville machine, a very very young Dolly Parton wrote this beautiful song about her unforgettable night in 1972 in one of my favorite little cities, Eugene, Oregon, where she was a very sick young lady but decided to play anyway. Of course Nashville didn't release it for decades until Dolly, to her credit, insisted it be included in a box set.

"I stayed in my little room in the bus and cried while Porter and the band went on and did the shows without me. In Eugene, Oregon, I decided that I had to get up and get on stage that night. I was so weak that it took me all afternoon to get ready."


"I went out on stage, informed the audience that I was sick and asked them to please forgive my weakness. They totally supported me, they loved me and gave me my first standing ovation — actually two. I got one after I finished my song ‘Coat of Many Colors’ and I cried like a baby. I almost couldn’t go back into the next song I was so touched by it.”


"Then I got another standing ovation when I left the stage. I went back a couple of times for encores. I was so touched by their kindness that I went straight to the bus, as sick as I still was, and wrote the song, ‘Eugene, Oregon.’ To this day it is one of my favorite songs and I will remember Eugene, Oregon, for the rest of my life.”