Dolly Parton is a country music and cultural icon, and on Sept. 16 at the Ryman Auditorium, she will be honored for her influence on Americana, too. Parton will be presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2026 Americana Honors & Awards in Nashville and will accept via a virtual video message. Previous honorees include Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt. Parton will join Robert Plant, who was previously announced, as one of this year’s honorees.

“We at the Americana Music Association have long admired Ms. Parton’s work as a singer, songwriter, entertainer and one of the greatest ambassadors music has ever known,” Jed Hilly, executive director of the Americana Music Association, said in a statement. “With all of her extraordinary accomplishments — from philanthropy to television, film and business — our desire is to honor Dolly for what has always been at the heart of her legacy: a definitive songwriter and artist whose songs have shaped generations.”

Despite some health challenges that have forced Parton to scale back her public activities this past year, she did make an appearance at the opening of her Dolly’s Tennessean Travel Stop in Cornersville, Tennessee, back in June. And the Parton empire is nowhere near slowing down: her Nashville hotel, the SongTeller, is opening in September and will house two venues (one called Jolene’s) and a museum, the Dolly’s Life of Many Colors Museum. Her life story, A True Original Musical, is also headed to Broadway, opening Jan. 19 at the St. James Theater in New York City — a day which is also Parton’s 81st birthday.

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