For a dose of country and pop, check out Dolly Parton at WaMu Theater tonight

Slap together Appalachia and Vegas, and you've got Dolly Parton. She looks like a cartoon, sings like a bird and can play just about any instrument she can get her hands on — including her own long, red fingernails.

Parton (and doesn't it sound strange to call her by her last name? I mean, she's Dolly) is one of those rare artists who has both craft and camp. She's been working that combo throughout her five-decade career, stacking up more than two dozen No. 1 hits, including "Jolene," "Coat of Many Colors" and "I Will Always Love You."

Now on tour behind her latest album, "Backwoods Barbie," the 62-year-old Parton is a hot commodity — and that has nothing (OK, very little) to do with her infamous 36FF chart-toppers.

It's a good time for the nostalgia of country music, and "Backwoods Barbie" has a winning mix of simple storytelling, optimistic philosophizing and boot-kicking female empowerment. The album debuted at No. 17 on Billboard's top 200, her highest Billboard debut to date.

In the album's 13 tracks, Parton works every flavor of her career. Like many top-selling country artists, she's danced between pop and twang. Here she dips into that glossy pop, but gives a good dose of honky-tonk and bluegrass.

"I purposely did this particular album trying to cater to the country market to see if I could still get some play," she said in a July 31 interview with Billboard.com. "But you know me; I'm never gonna be just any one thing, I'm just Dolly."

If you snag a ticket to see Parton tonight at the WaMu Theater, expect an eclectic crowd: old-time country fans; members of the gay community; and youngsters who maybe know Parton only as "Aunt Dolly," as she appears on the Disney television show "Hannah Montana." Parton is, in real life, "Hannah Montana" star Miley Cyrus' godmother, which, to a huge set of tweens, makes her royalty.

It doesn't hurt her pop cred that Parton also wrote and sang on the title track of Jessica Simpson's new country crossover album, "Do You Know."

Parton has been writing up a storm lately, and she's about to add a Broadway-writing credit to her résumé. Next month she'll open her stage version of "9 to 5," the 1980 working-girl-revenge comedy film she starred in with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.

The musical plays in L.A. and then goes to Broadway in March. Parton penned more than 20 songs for the show, including an expanded version of the title song, which won her an Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe and two Grammys.

This isn't the first time Parton has stepped outside the confines of album-making and touring for a business venture. You've probably heard of Dollywood, her amusement park. She also founded Sandollar Productions, a film and TV production company (Dolly is partially responsible for "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" ... who knew?).

In the hands of other stars, Parton's business savvy and larger-than-life bawdy glitz might come off as fake. But her honesty — backed by honestly good music — makes her endearing. In concert she's a yarn weaver, tying together songs with tales of growing up in eastern Tennessee, attending a Pentecostal church with her 11 siblings.

And she's the first to crack a joke about her nipped and tucked features or perfectly coifed, mile-high beehive. "It takes a lot of money to look this cheap," she's been known to quip.

The title track off her newest album sums it up: "I'm just a backwoods Barbie, too much makeup, too much hair/Don't be fooled by thinking that the goods are not all there."

The sentiment is simple; the packaging is far from it.

Joanna Horowitz: jbhorowitz@gmail.com