Dolly Parton needed no band, no stage and no elaborate performance to leave Stephen Colbert wiping tears from his eyes. During her October 20, 2020 appearance on The Late Show, the country icon unexpectedly began singing an old folk song her mother used to perform when she was growing up—and within moments, Colbert was visibly overcome with emotion.

The song that stopped Colbert in his tracks

Parton had been reflecting on her childhood in Tennessee and the profound influence her mother, Avie Lee Owens Parton, had on her love of music.

She recalled how her mother would sing old traditional songs around the house, often completely a cappella. Many of them were deeply melancholy. Parton remembered them as “plum pitiful.”

One song stood out in particular: “Bury Me Beneath the Willow,” an old folk ballad later popularized by the Carter Family. The song tells the tragic story of a woman whose fiancé abandons her shortly before their wedding, leaving her heartbroken.

As Parton talked about it, she suddenly began singing.

There was no musical accompaniment. Just Parton’s unmistakable voice and a song tied to memories of her mother.

Colbert initially listened with a smile, but his reaction quickly changed. By the time Parton reached the second verse, he had taken off his glasses and was wiping tears from his eyes.

Parton noticed.

“Are you crying?” she asked, gently teasing him.

“You got under my trip wire”

Instead of breaking the mood, Parton continued singing, allowing the emotional moment to unfold naturally.

When she finished, she joked that she had better stop before Colbert cried so much that he could no longer finish the show.

Still visibly emotional, Colbert tried to compose himself. He explained that, like many Americans at the time, he was carrying a great deal of stress.

“You got under my trip wire,” he told Parton, before admitting simply that the performance was beautiful.

Parton then revealed that the songs her mother sang could move the entire family. When her mother cried while singing them, Parton and her siblings would cry, too.

That childhood connection gave the impromptu performance an emotional weight far beyond a typical late-night musical moment.

A glimpse into the music that shaped Dolly Parton

The performance came as Parton was promoting Songteller: My Life in Lyrics, a book exploring the stories and inspiration behind her songwriting.

During the interview, she discussed how songs can evolve when other artists interpret them, including Whitney Houston’s celebrated version of “I Will Always Love You.” Parton also talked about music she had been writing during the coronavirus pandemic, when many people were struggling with uncertainty and stress.

The book brought together roughly 170 of Parton’s songs, along with stories, photographs and reflections on the circumstances surrounding her songwriting.

Parton also named three of her own songs as personal favorites: “Coat of Many Colors,” “I Will Always Love You” and the lesser-known “Down From Dover.”

A song passed down through generations

“Bury Me Beneath the Willow” has deep roots in traditional American music and became particularly associated with the Carter Family, who recorded it in 1927. The Carter Family later recorded an “answer song” in 1936 from the perspective of the abandoned woman’s lover.

For Parton, however, the song was more than a piece of American folk history. It was something she remembered hearing from her mother as a child.

And decades later, that same song unexpectedly brought another listener to tears.

There was no elaborate production behind the moment—just Dolly Parton, an old song and a childhood memory powerful enough to break through Stephen Colbert’s composure on live television.