A BALTIMORE-based musician who wrote a song for Dolly Parton said she was an ‘amazing, natural talent’ describing her death as a ‘terrible loss’.

Donagh Long has written songs for Mary Black, Christy Moore and Dolores Keane.

Country legend Dolly, who died on Tuesday, covered his song ‘You’ll Never Be The Sun’ on an album she recorded with EmmyLou Harris and Linda Ronstandt in 1999.

‘I had actually sent the song to Dolores Keane and when she was recording it a good few years later, EmmyLou Harris asked if she could sing harmonies on it with her,’ Donagh told The Southern Star.

‘When she went back to the States she told Dolly and Linda that she found a beautiful song to record for their second album.

‘The first I had heard that it was going on the album was when my publisher at the time, Joe O’Reilly (Mary Black’s husband), rang me to tell me he got a request for a licence for the song. It was amazing to have three wonderful high-profile singers to sing one of my songs.’

The fact that the trio covered Donagh’s song on their second album meant that over 500 artists have since covered the track.

‘Dolly sings the most amazing harmonies on the song and she was a fantastic singer,’ he said. ‘While I never had the pleasure of meeting her, she wrote some fantastic songs throughout her career and people forget that she wrote a lot of her songs. 

‘She was just an amazing and natural talent. She seemed to be able to find her way through all the stuff in America including the politics and just be a musician and her death is a terrible loss.’

Tributes continue to flow for the iconic country music singer who once famously wrote two of her biggest hits – Jolene and I Will Always Love You – in the space of 24 hours.

The late country star, who was a regular visitor to Ireland, last played Live At The Marquee in Cork in 2014, having previously played there six years earlier.