Shop gifts guitars to girls in Dolly Parton's memory

The owner of a music shop has given away three guitars to young women and girls in memory of Dolly Parton.

Alex Harris, from Big Al's Music Emporium in Wem, Shropshire, said the US country superstar was "an icon and legend of music, but also an incredibly kind person". She died on 25 August, aged 80.

Parton's support for young people in Tennessee and around the world inspired him to help girls in Shropshire pursue music.

When he offered to give away a guitar on Facebook, it led to a massive response, which he described as "mental".

"I've got this little 3/4 guitar up on the wall… I thought I'd give that to a young girl who can't afford to buy one," he said.

"I'll clean it up, put some new strings on it, and put a little thing on Facebook.

"[It had] thousands and thousands of likes, and it got shared everywhere, and people were saying, 'What a wonderful thing to do.'"

"I've ended up giving away three guitars."

Harris said people on social media had also asked how they could get involved.

People have bought items to donate to the girls, as well as guitars, from his website, he added.

"There was a gig bag, there was a tuner, there was a spare set of strings, there was a learn-to-play book," he said.

"People are genuinely very generous."

The music shop owner said one guitar went to an 18-year-old girl who had dwarfism and needed a smaller instrument.

Thanks to donations from customers, she also got a guitar strap, a learn-to-play book, and an electric clip-on tuner.

One of the other girls was in primary school, Harris confirmed.

"She had the little three-quarter that I originally intended to give away, and somebody paid for a nice padded gig bag to go with that, and a learn-to-play book and a capo."

The third girl to receive a guitar was 17-year-old Amelia, who said Parton was a big influence for her.

"I always looked up to her and how she was so confident in herself and how she just always believed in herself," she said.

"I wondered what that would feel like for me in the future - to be that confident in my abilities."

She added that her grandmother had also been a fan of the singing star and would listen to her music.

It was her mother, though, that spotted the Facebook post and put Amelia forward to receive the guitar.

"It didn't feel real, to be honest; it was really exciting... it was just so cool and just so nice of him," she said of receiving the guitar from Harris.

"I really just want to learn how to play the guitar and one day confidently be able to play songs to my friends and family.

"It's more of a hobby at the moment, but I do really look up to artists, so I'm not sure if that's something I would look at in the future."

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