Raleigh Bassist Recalls Playing Jolene With Dolly Parton, Says It Changed His Life

Randy Ines still remembers what it felt like to play bass behind Dolly Parton as she sang “Jolene” inside Marbles Kids Museum in downtown Raleigh. The 2019 charity event, where Ines and his band Bull City Syndicate backed the country music icon, ended up reshaping his life so thoroughly that he eventually walked away from a full-time 9-to-5 job to focus on music.

The performance took place on March 2, 2019, when Parton appeared as the featured guest at Smart Start's 25th Anniversary Gala, according to Catering Works. The gala marked the statewide expansion of Parton's Imagination Library program, and Bull City Syndicate — the North Carolina horn and event band Ines manages and plays bass for — provided musical entertainment for the evening, as first reported by WRAL. That event, per WRAL, highlighted the importance of early childhood education, and Parton reportedly opened up to Ines and his bandmates, even speaking about the passing of one of her brothers.

WRAL's report notes that Ines has described the encounter as the moment he decided he wanted to become a better person, musician, and Christian. The station's account details how Ines left his 9-to-5 job following the 2019 experience, choosing instead to teach music to children and pass on what he describes as Parton's legacy of music.

A State-Funded Program Behind the Stage

Parton's appearance in Raleigh was not a standalone celebrity visit — it was tied directly to a significant piece of North Carolina policy. State lawmakers allocated $10.5 million over two years in 2017 to fund and administer the Imagination Library across all 100 North Carolina counties, according to Catering Works, working through the Smart Start network, a statewide public-private partnership created in 1993 to help children enter kindergarten healthy and prepared to learn.

Smart Start operates local partnerships in every North Carolina county, providing early education and family support services, per the same account. The legislative grant meant free monthly book mailings could reach pre-kindergarten children statewide, and Smart Start's 25th anniversary gala, held at Marbles with PNC Bank as the presenting sponsor, was designed to celebrate that expansion.

From Wedding Gigs to a Global Milestone

Bull City Syndicate has long been a fixture of North Carolina's event scene, playing weddings and other functions across the region, per WRAL's reporting. Today the ensemble performs and books under the name Metro City Band, with Ines still acting as manager and bassist, according to Metro City Band. The group has since established itself as a mid-Atlantic event band featured at gubernatorial inaugural balls and major galas, while maintaining its legacy reputation in the Triangle under its original name.

Ines's connection to Parton's charity runs deeper than a single performance. WRAL reports that Parton has given tens of millions of dollars to causes she supports, and her Imagination Library now provides books to approximately 850,000 children worldwide every month, according to the station. Globally, the initiative reached a larger milestone in late 2025, gifting its 300 millionth free book to children since its 1995 founding and currently distributing over 3 million books monthly, according to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

A 2025 global study surveying more than 86,000 caregivers across five countries found that the program significantly increases home reading frequency and early literacy skills in young children, per Imagination Library's own research page. The 12-month study was led by researcher Dr. Claire Galea and tracked early reading habits among enrolled families.

Life Beyond the Stage

Ines now teaches music out of his basement studio, WRAL reports, continuing to work with children even as he plays in Bull City Syndicate and, separately, serves as bass guitarist for the American Bowie Experience, a North Carolina-based tribute act honoring David Bowie, according to Heritage Piano. He also owns Heritage Piano Tuning & Service in Raleigh, where two of his daughters work alongside him as technician apprentices, having moved to the city in 1999 to build the family business.

Marbles Kids Museum, the downtown Raleigh venue where the 2019 gala unfolded, opened in September 2007 following the merger of the Exploris and Playspace children's museums and has logged more than 9 million total visitors, according to the Marbles Kids Museum. The nonprofit features 36,000 square feet of exhibit space and the Triangle region's only IMAX 3D theater. Wake County officials have since approved funding for a “Bigger Play, Brighter Futures” expansion at the museum, adding more than 5,000 square feet of new interactive exhibit space and a rooftop playscape, per ThemeParkBrochures.net.

For Ines, the memory of standing on that Marbles stage backing Parton on “Jolene” remains the pivot point of his professional life, one that WRAL frames as the reason he now spends his days passing music on to the next generation rather than clocking into a traditional job.