Although she grew up poor in rural East Tennessee, Dolly Parton has fond memories of her mountain home, which inspired her 1973 concept album. The title track finds her reminiscing about simpler times spent with her family. She recalled in her 2020 book, Songteller: "I love being a mountain girl, a country girl. And I've written so many songs about it. 'My Tennessee Mountain Home' really talks about sitting on a front porch, leaning back like we used to, singing, and having peaceful times. There were hard times, too. But when you grow up in the mountains, you're not working every second."
Dolly is particularly fond of the line, "Life is as peaceful as a baby's sigh." She said: "We always had plenty of babies, and there's nothing like holding a little baby after he's bawled his head off and finally gone to sleep."
Dolly's uncle Louis snapped a photo of the real-life Parton home in Locust Ridge, where the singer grew up with her 11 siblings, for the album cover. While fans can visit a replica of the tiny cabin at Dollywood, which features some of the Partons' original furniture and other mementoes, the actual home still stands in Locust Ridge. Dolly's parents sold the cabin in the '70s, but she bought it back in the '80s and restored it with the help of her brother Bobby. "What we tried to do was make it look like it did when we lived there, but we wanted it to be functional. So I spent a couple million dollars making it look like I spent $50 on it!" she told The Nate Berkus Show. "Even like in the bathroom, I made the bathroom so it looked like an outdoor toilet."
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