Studio Album · No. 28
Hungry Again Songwriting Credits by Dolly Parton
Holds writing credit on 12 of 12 tracks
Authorship Breakdown 12 / 12 documented
Scored across the 12 tracks with documented writers, by whether Dolly Parton carries a lyricist or composer credit.
Share of the 12 tracks where a band member is credited, by role.
By the Numbers
Hungry Again is one of the few albums in Dolly Parton's catalog written entirely by Parton, all twelve songs from her own pen and no covers or outside writers. She has described it as a deliberate return to her roots, retreating to her lake cottage and her Tennessee Mountain Home for several months in 1997 and fasting and praying to rediscover the raw, autobiographical writing voice of her early Appalachian records. Songs like "Hungry Again," "Blue Valley Songbird," and "Honky Tonk Songs" reach back to the hard-country, story-driven style of her late-1960s and early-1970s work rather than the pop-crossover sound of her commercial peak. The result is among her most personal and self-contained albums, produced by Parton with her cousin Richie Owens in a small Nashville studio.
Released August 25, 1998, on Decca Records and Blue Eye Records, Hungry Again was an all-original album with all twelve tracks written solely by Parton, her most personal and unadorned writing in years. The album was co-produced by Parton and her cousin Richie Owens, recorded in Owens's basement studio in a deliberately intimate, acoustic setting that Parton described as a return to close-to-the-heart songwriting. Parton composed the material over three months in 1997 at her lake cottage and Tennessee Mountain Home in Sevierville, generating 37 songs in total after a period of personal fasting and spiritual reflection. Musically the record was an acoustic country album that served as a direct precursor to her acclaimed bluegrass trilogy, signaling a creative reorientation away from mainstream Nashville radio production. AllMusic awarded it 4.5 out of 5 stars and Billboard called it arguably some of the best stuff she has done in years, though country radio rejected the lead single and the album reached number 23 on Top Country Albums.