When Vince Gill, Béla Fleck, Ricky Skaggs and Molly Tuttle took the stage in Nashville, they gave a masterclass in American roots music. The quartet opened the live television special CMA Presents I Will Always Love You, a celebration of Dolly Parton held at Belmont University. Following Dolly’s passing in August 2026 at age 80, the memorial broadcast brought together top talent to celebrate her life. Kicking off the evening with “A Few Old Memories,” the four musicians set an intimate, reverent tone for the tribute.
Rather than opening with one of Dolly’s famous self-penned crossover anthems, the group chose a track with deep bluegrass heritage. “A Few Old Memories” was written by pioneering bluegrass songwriter Hazel Dickens and recorded by Dolly for her 1999 album The Grass Is Blue. That project won a Grammy and reaffirmed Dolly’s lifelong bond with Appalachian traditional music. By highlighting Dickens’s writing, the quartet framed Dolly not just as an iconic songwriter and personality, but as an exceptional interpreter of mountain music.
The lineup brought together distinct eras of bluegrass virtuosity. Gill and Skaggs share roots reaching back decades to early collaborations in groups like Boone Creek, while banjo master Fleck and guitarist Tuttle have regularly crossed paths in contemporary acoustic circles. Tuttle, already a two-time Grammy winner for her albums Crooked Tree and City of Gold, called sharing the stage with the veteran pickers a major personal honour. Their easy chemistry showed how living traditions pass seamlessly between generations.
Gill brought his own unique history to the evening. In 1995, he joined Dolly for a duet of “I Will Always Love You” that earned a CMA Vocal Event of the Year award, tying him directly to the song for which the broadcast was named. Skaggs brought an equally deep connection, shaped by eastern Kentucky mountain traditions like those that defined Dolly’s earliest musical memories. That mutual history gave their performance an authenticity that felt grounded in shared experience. See Gill joined by Ricky Skaggs, Molly Tuttle, and Béla Fleck as they honor Dolly’s bluegrass roots during the CMA tribute broadcast.
The wider special found an enormous audience. Ratings from ABC showed that the live broadcast drew 4.74 million total viewers across ABC and Disney+, winning its two-hour evening time slot. Online interest was evident once CMA posted the performance clip, which collected more than 136,000 views within its first week on YouTube. The numbers confirmed an appetite for traditional acoustic music presented with care on a major national platform.
The evening also honoured Dolly’s commitment to education and community. The next day, CMA announced a combined one-million-dollar donation to Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, backed by Belmont University, Disney and Nashville tourism partners. Starting the broadcast with Dickens’s heartfelt song anchored the celebration in the acoustic sounds Dolly loved throughout her career. It served as a reminder that before she became a global icon, Dolly belonged first to the mountain tradition that this quartet honoured so well.