Dolly Parton Releases New Album To Benefit Her Smoky Mountain Community

The 75th anniversary celebration of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is under way. The park, with 8 to 10 million annual visitors, is the country's most popular national park.

Dolly Parton, a native of the mountains, helped launch the park's 75th anniversary by performing Feb. 10 at the annual Tennessee Sampler trade show in National Harbor, Md. She has been designated the official ambassador for the celebration. Parton is donating first-year proceeds from her new CD, "Sha-Kon-O-Hey!," to the nonprofit Friends of the Smokies organization. The title of the album means "Land of Blue Smoke" in Cherokee.

Sha-Kon-O-Hey! Land of Blue Smoke is a Dolly Parton album sold exclusively at Dollywood, Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede and through the Great Smoky Mountains Association. While serving as honorary ambassador of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2009, Parton wrote eight pieces of music for a new stage show at Dollywood. The eight songs in the musical were recorded by Parton for this commemorative CD. During its first year of release, all proceeds from the album were donated to the non-profit "Friends of the Smokies" organization.