Dolly Parton And Her Surprising Jamaica Connection 

By NAN ET Editor, NewsAmericas Now

News Americas, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, Weds. August 26, 2026: As fans globally mourn the death of award-winning Country music icon, Dolly Parton, who died on Tuesday, August 25th at 80 after a brief battle with cancer, one of her most surprising crossovers connects directly back to Jamaica.

Parton, born Dolly Rebecca Parton, who spent six decades crossing genres, generations, and audiences, lent her original vocal stems to a full reggae reimagining in 2022. It was for her 1978 classic “Two Doors Down.” A collective of elite Jamaican musicians called Positive Vibrations reworked the song for the album ‘Country Goes Reggae.’ Rather than simply licensing the track, Parton actively participated, rerecording elements of her vocal specifically to lock into the new reggae arrangement’s tempo and groove.

“The distance between Nashville and Jamaica is closer than it appears on a map”

The project came from producers Christian and Frank Berman, known as The Berman Brothers, alongside partner Ron Oehl, whose idea was sparked during a 2019 trip to Negril: sitting at a beachside bar listening to classic reggae as a car drove past blasting American country music, the overlap of the two genres in that moment convinced them the sounds belonged together.

Parton clearly agreed. “I know people will be loving this album forever, and I truly hope that you enjoy my song ‘Two Doors Down,'” she said at the time. “To say that I’m proud of the Country Goes Reggae album with Positive Vibrations would be, certainly, an understatement. So many wonderful artists, so many wonderful songs and such great arrangements!”

The instrumentation behind her reimagined track came from genuine reggae royalty: guitarist Ian “Beezy” Coleman, who’s played with Ziggy Marley, Damian Marley, Wyclef Jean and the Fugees; bassist Devon Bradshaw, formerly of Burning Spear; saxophonist Guillaume “Stepper Sax” Briard; and trombonist Henry “Matic” Tenyue, a veteran of UB40, Aswad and Dennis Brown’s bands.

A career defined by crossing lines

The Berman Brothers were no strangers to this kind of genre-blending cultural bridge-building, having previously created Rhythms Del Mundo – Cuba, pairing Coldplay, Sting and U2 with Buena Vista Social Club legends Ibrahim Ferrer and Omara Portuondo. But landing an artist of Parton’s stature, a Country Music Hall of Famer willing to rerecord her own vocals for a reggae reinterpretation of one of her signature hits, remains one of the project’s most unlikely and enduring achievements.

Parton’s willingness to cross into reggae with Jamaican musicians stands as a small but genuine footnote in a career defined by crossing every line placed in front of her, between genres, between audiences, and, for one unexpected summer in 2022, between Nashville and Jamaica.

Listen to the song below

ABOUT PARTON

Born January 19, 1946, in Sevier County, Tennessee, one of 12 children, Dolly Parton learned guitar at age 7 and made her first television appearance at 10. She wrote “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” on the same day in 1972, the latter becoming a global phenomenon two decades later through Whitney Houston’s cover, which earned Parton an additional $10 million in royalties she used to invest in an office complex in a historically Black Nashville neighborhood. Beyond music, Parton was known for her philanthropy, including the Imagination Library, which has distributed more than 300 million free books to children across five countries since 1995, founded in honor of her father, who never learned to read. Forbes estimated her fortune at roughly $450 million in 2025. She is survived by her husband of nearly six decades, Carl Dean, and leaves behind a legacy spanning country music, film, philanthropy, and a genre-crossing spirit that, even in her final years, carried her music as far as reggae’s shores in Jamaica.