From: ajw@cbnews.cb.att.com (andrew.j.whitman)
Subject: Re: mark heard discography
Organization: AT&T
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 14:33:24 GMT

In article <1993Jan12.064840.2501@nuscc.nus.sg> isc30366@nusunix1.nus.sg (HO TUCK CHIUN) writes:
>warrenjr@HYDRA.ROSE-HULMAN.EDU wrote:
>: Tribal Opera (1987-as ideola)
>: Dry Bones Dance (1990)
>: Second Hand (1991)
>: Satellite Sky (1992)
>
>   I've heard Tribal Opera and I own a copy of Satellite Sky.  How does
>Dry Bones Dance and Second Hand compare with these two?

I've only heard "Second Hand" a couple times, so my comments are fairly
general.  It's the acoustic/folkie side of Mark's music.  There's one 
Beatles cover and everything else is original.  The lyrics are typical
Mark Heard, which means that they're insightful, poetic, sad, and
uplifting, all at the same time.  I liked what I heard, and I wish
I could find this album.  Anybody know why Christian book/record
stores seem to carry just about all of Mark's catalogue except for
this one?

"Dry Bones Dance" is brilliant.  Buy it.  T Bone Burnett produces and
plays guitar.  Sam Phillips provides the background and harmony vocals.
There's a fair amount of Cajun influence here, and you'll find plenty
of fiddles and accordions.  Don't let that scare you off.  The 
musicianship on this album is superb, and there's a lot of energy
in the playing.  I think this would be a great album even without
the lyrics.

The lyrics?  Well, I'd say that they contain the best, most honest,
most beautiful expression of Christian marriage that I've ever heard.
There's joy, sorrow and heartache, struggle, monotony, and peace.  
The predominant metaphor here is fire - fire as the painful working
out of two separate lives joined together, fire as the purging and
purifying work of God within marriage, fire as the heat and passion
that help to make marriage work.  I don't want to engage in speculation
here, and what I'm about to say may have no basis in reality, but 
I get the impression that Mark was going through a very difficult
time in his marriage when he recorded this album.  "Rise from the
Ruins" sounds like a plea to save a marriage if I've ever heard one.
"House of Broken Dreams" is about as sorrowful as Christian music
ever gets, and Heard sings about being "penniless at the wishing
well" and "saving our dreams for tomorrow and tomorrow lets us
down again."  "Restless Heart" uses the metaphor of marriage as 
a battlefield, and ends with the plea to "give when the instinct
is to take."  "All She Wanted Was Love" finds the protagonist
(Heard?) standing outside of his empty home, realizing that his
spouse has a life of her own, and that he can't control her.
"Awake in the Nighttime" is a prayer that the songwriter will
simply be able to fall asleep.  

All of this is dire stuff, and I couldn't believe that I was hearing
it on a CCM album the first time I heard it.  But it doesn't end
there.  Heard confesses that he still senses the strong hand of
love, even when that love seems to be hidden in the shadows.  And
on "Mercy of the Flame," one of the most astouding songs I've
ever heard, period, Heard sings that he would gladly be burned by
that painful, purifying fire of marriage.  The final song, "Fire,"
ties it all together.

It's astounding confessional songwriting, and it's so far beyond the
usual smiley happy Christian drivel that it almost needs a better 
label than CCM.  I'd like to think that every engaged Christian
couple should listen to this album as part of their marriage
preparation, it's so good.  Buy it.  

>Rodney Ho
>hotuckch@iscs.nus.sg
>isc30366@nusunix1.nus.sg

Andy Whitman
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Columbus, Ohio
att!cblpn!ajw  or
ajw@cblpn.att.com

"The dove descending breaks the air
 With flame of incandescent terror
 Of which the tongues declare
 The one discharge from sin and error.
 Our only hope - or else despair -
 Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre;
 To be redeemed from fire by fire."
  -- T. S. Eliot, "Four Quartets"
Newsgroups: rec.music.christian