LIGHT OF A BLUE CLEAR MORNING
A heartening, hopeful, prayerful song. Make it your prayer today.
Light of a Clear Blue Morning
Song by Dolly Parton ‧ 1977
Dolly Parton released a reimagined version of her classic song "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" on January 16, 2026, to celebrate her 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of writing the track featuring Miley Cyrus, Reba McEntire, Lainey Wilson, and Queen Latifah.
It's been a long dark night
And I've been a waitin' for the morning
It's been a long hard fight
But I see a brand new day a dawning
I've been looking for the sunshine
You know I ain't seen it in so long
But everything's gonna work out just fine
And everything's gonna be all right
That's been all wrong
'Cause I can see the light of a clear blue morning
I can see the light of a brand new day
I can see the light of a clear blue morning
Oh, and everything's gonna be all right
It's gonna be okay
It's been a long long time
Since I've known the taste of freedom
And those clinging vines
That had me bound, well I don't need 'em
Oh, I've been like a captured eagle, you know an eagle's born to fly
Now that I have won my freedom, like an eagle I am eager for the sky
And I can see the light of a clear blue morning
I can see the light of brand new day
I can see the light of a clear blue morning
Oh, and everything's gonna be all right
It's gonna be okay
The reimagined "Light of a Clear Blue Morning" brought Miley Cyrus, Reba McEntire, Lainey Wilson, and Queen Latifah into the studio with her, with all proceeds directed to pediatric cancer research at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
She said she wrote the original "during a season when I was searching for hope."
Then she spent five decades handing that hope to other people.
This was just her way.
In 2017, she gave $1 million to that same hospital's pediatric cancer program in honor of her niece Hannah, who beat leukemia there.
In 2022, another million for pediatric research.
When COVID hit, her money helped fund the vaccine.
Yesterday, her family's statement told us she died after a brief battle with cancer — at Vanderbilt, surrounded by the people she loved, inside the very walls she'd spent years quietly building up for everybody else's kids.
She faced the hardest thing a person can face the way she did everything: on her own terms, without asking for our worry, and with her hands still open.
The proceeds from that January recording are still flowing to children fighting the same disease she was.
They will keep flowing. Stream the song. Let it climb. She'd like knowing exactly where the money's going.
