Gar's Music Hall Of Fame: Mark Heard

Mark Heard is maybe my favorite singer-songwriter of all time. This comment is not to be taken lightly. I have sung the praises of Beatles, U2, Bob Dylan, and many others, but there is no one that I listen to that carries the same emotional weight with me.

Mark was a brilliant songwriter who could wed words together. He could take the simple and make it seem like the most beautiful thing you have ever heard.

Mark released eight albums before his untimely death. Now some of his 80's output was great, but it was his last three records he put out before his death that rank in my top 20 albums of all time. Let's take a look at them

Dry Bone Dance (1992) A rich album filled with intelligent songs. The sound ranges from folk to zydeco with guitars, mandolin, dulcimer, and accordion. My favorite song off this album has to be "Strong Hand Of Love" which was covered by Bruce Cockburn.

With lyrics like:

Young dreamers explode like popped balloons
Some kind of emotional rodeo
Learning too slow and acting too soon
Time marches away like a lost platoon
We gracefully age as we feel the weight
Of loving too late and leaving too soon

We can laugh and we can cry
And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows
We can dance and we can sigh
And never see the strong hand of love hidden in the shadows

This album is full of these wonderful moments. The next album is

Second Hand (1991) This is a much more acoustic album in nature. Has more of singer-songwriter folky vibe to it. The focus of this record is more on the lyrical content which is just as incredible as Dry Bones Dance was. This record is full of songs that shine a light on the frailty of humanity and the need for redemption.

My favorite song off Second Hand has to be "Love Is Not The Only Thing". Mark so wonderfully sings:

Too tired to read another twenty pages
Too bored to see the anchorman's face
Too young to bear the burdens of the ages
Too old to keep an innocent pace
You see me like a prism sees a candle
I'm scattered into differing hues
Reality is happening at random
You're warming up the yellows and blues

Love is not the only thing
It's the best thing
Love is never everything
But it's the best thing

Mark so wonderfully captures our desperation that we have sometimes and finds ways to crack through our surfaces and allow life to happen.

The third album in this wonderful trilogy is

Satellite Sky (1992) This is the final release Mark put out before he died. This album is the rock record that I love to play when I am on the move. There is a ton of energy on here. Again, Mark is able to capture the human condition wonderfully. On the song "Tip Of My Tongue" he sings:

There's an oasis in the heat of the day
There's fire in the chill of night
And when I know them both, I'll know your love -
I will feel it in the twilight

As circumstance comes crashing through my walls like a train
Or like a chorus from the mountains of the ocean floor
Like the wind-burst of birdwings taking flight in a hard rain
Or like a mad dog on the far side of Dante's Door

Knock the scales from my eyes
Knock the words from my lungs
I want to cry out
It's on the tip of my tongue

Mark Heard was an incredible artist who that I continue to listen to over and over. If you can find these three album, which I am sad to say, are out of print, buy them up.

Mix For The Week Of 3-4

So, once a week I like to put my I-pod on shuffle and take the first 20 songs and make a mix. I will start posting a complete, non-scientific, playlist each week along with the various posts of favorite bands, records, etc. Here's the first one:

1) Bob Dylan - Honey, Just Allow Me One More Chance (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan)
2) John Hiatt - Walk On (Walk On)
3) Midnight Oil - Bullroarer (Diesel & Dust)
4) Dwight Yoakam - Heartache By The Number (Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.)
5) 10,000 Maniacs - City Of Angels (In My Tribe)
6) The Jam - Sounds From The Street (In The City)
7) The Wood Brothers - Glad (Ways Not To Lose)
8) Ralph Stanley - Engine 143 (A Distant Land To Roam: Songs Of The Carter Family)
9) matt Pond PA - Last Light (Last Light)
10) Michelle Shocked - Hi Skool (Don't Ask Don't Tell)
11) Mary Gauthier - Soft Place To Land (Between Daylight And Dark)
12) Stevie Wonder - Superstition (Talking Book)
13) The Pernice Brothers - Pisshole In The Snow (Discover A Lovelier You)
14) The Weakerthans - Confessions Of A Futon-Revolutionist (Fallow)
15) Joseph Arthur - I Will Carry You (Let's Just Be)
16) Ron Sexsmith - Pretty Little Cemetary (Other Songs)
17) The Waterboys - Dunfor Fancy (Fisherman's Blues)
18) Tom Petty - A Mind With A Heart Of It's Own (Full Moon Fever)
19) Vigilantes Of Love - Sailors (The Reddest Rose) (Summershine)
20) Calexico - Woven Birds (Feast Of Wire)

Probably my favorite track off of this playlist is the Stevie Wonder track. The whole album is one of my all-time favorites to listen to.

But you probably have an idea of what I like by seeing this list. Don't paint me in a corner yet. I just may surprise you....