Featured Artist
Jada Star
Born 1979
Jada Star is carrying forward a family legacy and crafting music with a deeply personal voice. “I write what I’m feeling,” she says. “All my songs are very personal to me. They’re very true — either about me or a situation that I’ve watched a person I care about go through.”
Biography
Jada, daughter of singer-songwriter Freida Parton and musician Mark Andersen, and niece of Dolly Parton, was born into a musical legacy. As a preschooler, she was already spending time in the studio with her parents and meeting music legends like Todd Rundgren, Levon Helm, and Paul Butterfield.
She also spent cherished time with her grandmother, Avie Lee Parton, in East Tennessee. “She taught me the same songs and stories she taught her children, including Dolly and my mom,” Jada recalls. “She even told me the story of the coat of many colors while teaching me to sew—it was surreal and beautiful.”
Though surrounded by music, Jada was a shy child who expressed herself through poetry. In her late teens, her mother taught her three guitar chords, saying, “Now you can put music to your poems—that’s what we do in this family.”
She kept songwriting mostly private until her early 30s, when Dolly invited her to join the family show at Dollywood. After seeing the impact the music had on fans, Jada realized her true path. She spent nearly a decade performing there, developing her stage presence and unique songwriting voice.
“We don’t get to pick the family we’re born in, but I say all the time I’m so thankful that the plan of the universe decided to drop me into this family. I’m so fortunate to have all the people around that have taught me so many things and have told me so many stories. I want to spread that feeling around and inspire other people to write down their stories.”
The Storyteller
Along with the release of her duet with her Aunt Dolly, “The Orchard,” on the album Smoky Mountain DNA, Jada continues to record and tour, while working on her next album. “I just want to make music, tell stories to people, and hear their people’s stories,” she says. “There’s not a job on Earth that sounds better than that.”
