HIGHLIGHT: DOLLY PARTON, “HE’S ALIVE”
Two versions of her White Limozeen gospel showstopper on one 45 RPM reference acetate, hand-scribed by Ron Purcell.
Auction · Bidding 5 Nov – 3 Dec
A 45 RPM live reference acetate of “He’s Alive” by Dolly Parton, carrying two versions of the song. “He’s Alive” was the gospel showstopper from her 1989 album White Limozeen and one of the defining performances of her late-’80s comeback. The center label is scribed by hand by Ron Purcell, in a nonstandard layout. Dolly is the biggest name in the Denny Purcell archive, and this is its headline acetate.
Dolly Parton - ‘He’s Alive’ 33⅓ RPM Reference Acetate
Juice Newton - ‘Ain’t Gonna Cry’ Test Pressing with Note from Denny Purcell
k.d. lang - ‘Lock, Stock and Teardrops’ Georgetown Masters Lacquer (Sire, 1988)
Hobo Jim - ‘Where Legends Are Born’ Test Pressing
Marty Stuart - RIAA Gold Sales Award, CD & Cassette (Denny Purcell Archive)
J.C. Crawley - ‘Boxcar’ Reference Cut, Scribed by Ron Purcell
Rafe Van Hoy - Woodland Sound Acetate incl. ‘Tell Me What’s Forever For’
Gail Davies - ‘Blue Heartache’ Acetate
Roy Clark - ‘Sauve & Gauze’ Acetate
Larry Gatlin - ‘All the Gold in California’ Reference Acetate
Narvel Felts - ‘The Feeling Is Right’ Reference Acetate
Kathy Mattea - ‘Love From the Heart’ Acetate
The Bama Band - ‘Rocket in My Pocket’ Georgetown Reference Cuts x2 (1988)
Gail Davies - ‘Giving Herself Away’ Test Pressing
The man in the mastering room
DENNY PURCELL, 1951–2002
Denny Purcell moved to Nashville in January 1970 and spent the next three decades as one of the city’s most trusted mastering engineers. In 1985 he founded Georgetown Masters on Music Square West, and by the time of his death in 2002 he had mastered thousands of albums, for artists from Neil Young, Dire Straits, and Tom Petty to Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, and Chet Atkins. In 1998 Billboard named Georgetown its Mastering Facility of the Year.
He was modest about the craft. “I sort of wave my hands over it,” he once said. The records in this archive show otherwise.
These are the working documents of the job: test cuts from Woodland Sound in the mid-’70s, Georgetown reference masters in their red sleeves, grease-pencil verdicts, white-out corrections, and Ron Purcell’s handwriting across the labels. Most were made to be played once and thrown away. They survived because Denny kept them, and they are consigned by his nephew, Brady Purcell, who worked alongside him from 1987 to 1992.
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(Signed) La Funk Mob – Casse Les Frontières, Fou Les Têtes En L'Air Mo Wax
