In advance of the tour, Parton will perform three special club shows: February 4 at The Roxy in Los Angeles, February 11 at Park West in Chicago and February 13 at HighLine Ballroom in New York City.

These shorter shows will include songs from the new album as well as selections from her vast catalog.

Tickets will only be available through DollyPartonMusic.net and supporting radio stations (KKGO in Los Angeles and US99.5 in Chicago).

The singer will launch the trek with a limited U.S. run, beginning February 28 at Northrup Auditorium in Minneapolis, and wrapping March 12 at the Fox Theater in Atlanta.

Other cities on the schedule include Chicago, Boston, New York City and Atlanta.

In June, Parton heads to Europe for a run that so far includes stops in Stockholm, Sweden; Belfast, Ireland; Glasgow, Scotland and London.

Additional European and North American dates are expected.

Tickets for all shows are available through links in the tour section at DollyPartonMusic.net.

Barbie, due out February 5, was co-produced by Parton and her guitarist and bandleader Kent Wells, and is the first release on the singer’s new Dolly Records label.

Parton said several factors motivated her to go indie with this album.

“When new country came along several years back, most artists my age got shoved off to the side, no matter how talented they might still be,” she said. “I tried a few country albums after that, but to no avail and no chart play.

“In between I did continue to write. I recorded a few favorite things, 2-3 bluegrass CDs, a patriotic CD, but none of that sold very well except out of the trunk of my car!

“Then I watched all the success being enjoyed by other artists, old and young, with all the new technology and all the different ways of marketing their product [and] I thought, “Well, I’m as good as I ever was if I was any good, so I’m going for it.’

“I put it on my own label because many of the majors really didn’t want me, as I mentioned, because of age, thinking I was over. But I felt different about that. I figured major labels are pretty much a thing of the past anyway, kind of like they thought I was.

“The way music is being played today, why not make all the money if there’s any money to be made. I’d rather have all of something than some of nothing.”

The album’s title track is part of another project that Parton has been working on, a Broadway version of the film “9 to 5” set to debut in 2009.

The singer has also been busy expanding her literacy project, Imagination Library, into the U.K.

The organization was founded by Parton in 1996 as a way to inspire children in her hometown of Sevierville, Tenn., to read.

The group provides a new, age appropriate book each month from birth to age five to registered children in participating communites. A local sponsor in each community funds the cost of the books and mailing while Parton’s foundation covers the overhead, selects the books and negotiates the cost.

The Imagination Library already operates in more than 700 communities in the U.S. and Canada. To date, 417,000 participating children in the U.S. and Canada currently receive books, with 4.5 million books mailed this year alone.