Who isn’t feeling a little emotional right now? If you, like Stephen Colbert, have been going about your life lately on the verge of tears, maybe skip this clip. Colbert had country icon (both of the music genre and the U.S.) Dolly Parton on The Late Show on October 20 to talk about her upcoming coffee table book, Dolly Parton, Songteller. As Parton explained her history of songwriting, she mentioned that her mother would sing folk songs when she was younger. “And so many of those songs were sad, and as I say, some of them just plum pitiful,” Parton said. “There was a song she used to sing called ‘Bury Me Beneath the Willow.’ It was about a girl that was gonna get married and her boyfriend left her at the altar, whatever. So she died, of course.” Then, just like that, she slipped into singing it perfectly, as Dolly Parton does. (She’s used to performing it.)
As she continued, she noticed Colbert tearing up: “And then it goes — are you cryin’? — [singing] Oh, bury me beneath the willow/ under the weeping willow tree.” Just like that! She eventually stopped herself, telling Colbert, “So I better hush before you cry yourself to death and we can’t finish the show.” He replied, “Like a lot of Americans, I’m under a lot of stress right now, Dolly!” And, well, is he wrong? “I know you’re not really crying!” Parton teased, as he continued, “And you got under my trip wire right there — I’ll tell you right there, that was pretty beautiful.” Parton then left him with some wisdom we could all use for the next few weeks. “I think that it cleanses your soul, I think water is good to wash it out,” she said. “It’s what tears are for, I think.”
