The Grass Is Blue

In the title track from her bluegrass album, Dolly Parton copes with the pain of a breakup by pretending opposites are true: I'm happy now And I'm glad we're through And the sky is green And the grass is blue

Parton wrote this during a 30-minute lunch break from filming the movie Blue Valley Songbird. The song came out so quickly, she attributes it to divine intervention. "It was so perfect," she said in a 1999 interview. "You know how I just love it when, when I feel like God intervenes when I'm really needin' something really bad cause I always - any gifts I have, I always give God the glory and like I say, some songs are better than others. God does better sometimes than he does on others, but anyway, this time, I was so tired. I just wanted it to be so good and he just pretty much wrote this one on His own. I just sat back there and just, you know, in this little amount of time, so I thought, Well God wrote a really good song today, so I'm gonna send this over, but I didn't put his name on it, but at least I'll give Him the glory."

Parton picked the perfect time to release a bluegrass album. Bluegrass darling Alison Krauss was making her way into the mainstream and, shortly after the album's release, the Appalachian-inspired soundtrack to O Brother Where Art Thou? debuted to great acclaim. Despite little support from mainstream country radio, The Grass Is Blue peaked at #24 on the country chart and won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album.