Bill Anderson unveils newly recorded Dolly Parton duet for new album

As Far As I Can See: The Best Of is due June 10th

Country Music Hall of Famer Bill Anderson will release a new album of some of the famed singer/songwriter’s hits, As Far As I Can See: The Best Of, on CD and digitally on June 10th. The collection of 16 songs shares its name with the current exhibition at the Country Music Hall of Fame, Bill Anderson: As Far As I Can See, and comes from the opening line of one of the first songs he ever wrote, “City Lights,” the country classic that was a hit for Ray Price in 1958. In addition to such beloved songs as “City Lights,” “Still,” Po’ Folks,” The Tip Of My Fingers,” and “Sometimes,” the album features a new song with country icon Dolly Parton, “Someday It’ll All Make Sense.”

The newly recorded duet is joined by Anderson and Parton’s first-ever collaboration, an incredibly rare demo of “If It Is All The Same To You,” recorded in 1964 and eventually released as a duet with Jan Howard on Anderson’s chart-topping 1969 album of the same name.

As Far As I Can See: The Best Of is being released by MCA Nashville/UMe, which has been Anderson’s label home for most of his seven-decade long career. The new project is being released in conjunction with the first-time digital release of seven of Anderson’s albums from the 1960s.

“Needless to say I am thrilled over my new association with UMG. Not only do they have 23 years’ worth of my back catalog ready to introduce to the digital world, but I am reuniting with Dolly Parton on this project,” says Anderson. “Dolly sang some demos for me (and with me) back in the early Sixties when she was new in town. One was a duet called, ‘If It’s All The Same To You,’ which had gone missing for years. UMG has recovered it and included it along with my and Dolly’s new duet in this package. That’s called connecting the dots across more than 50 years. How cool is that?”

Last summer, Anderson celebrated 60 years as a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Anderson made his Opry debut just a few weeks before his 21st birthday and became an official Opry member less than three years later on July 15, 1961 at 23-years-old, the youngest member at the time.