High Noon

Mark Heard | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 10, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Myrrh
• ASIN: B00000J6ZI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,173 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Strong Hand of Love

2. I just wanna get Warm

3. Look over your Shoulder

4. My Redeemer Lives

5. Another Day in Limbo

6. She's Not Afraid

7. Dry Bones Dance

8. House of Broken Dreams

9. Everything is Allright

10. Hammers & Nails

11. Love is So Blind

12. Nod Over Coffee

13. Love is not the Only Thing

14. No 3:14

15. Shaky Situation

16. Orphans of God

17. What Kind of a Friend

18. Treasure f the Broken Land

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Place to Start, September 26, 2000

By 

Samuel T Mitchell (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: High Noon (Audio CD)

This record is a good place to start if you've never come across any of Mark's music before. You get songs from his last three recordings ('Dry Bones Dance', 'Second Hand' and 'Satellite Sky') plus some unreleased stuff plus a track lifted off the multi-artist 'At the Foot of the Cross' album. This should have been a double album so as to showcase the length and breadth of Mark's talent and sweat-stained recording work. Nevertheless, unlike a lot of artists his later work is just as vital, creative and passionate as any of his earlier stuff. His untimely death in 1992 left a legacy of work that belies his lack of 'success'. Mark's lyrical depth and his commitment to roots music is powerfully displayed by this collection. Musically this record runs the gamut from aching solo-piano-driven balladry ('What Kind of Friend') to rollicking, noisy, full-tilt hillbilly-inspired, country rock ('The Dry Bones Dance'). The songs 'Another Day in Limbo', 'Hammer and Nails', 'Treasure of the Broken Land' (from 'Satellite Sky) and the previously unreleased 'She's Not Afraid' have a 'harder' electric feel, (unfortunatley they seem to have that tinny, treble-friendly sound common to recordings made by sound engineers with hearing damage :-)), and the first three have an almost '80s New Wave edge to them (as bizarre as that might sound!). The use of classic roots music instruments like piano-accordian, harmonica, upright-bass, hammond organ and fiddle flow over a consistently excellent foundation laid by Mark's own great guitar work and the likes of Michael Been ('The Call') on bass and David Raven on drums. This whole delicious, rootsy sound is augmented by kalimba (an African (?) thumb piano which sounds like a synth on these recordings), hammered dulcimer, electric mandolin, chapman stick (courtesy of Fergus Jemison Marsh, a long time Bruce Cockburn co-conspirator), pump organ, a horn section and more percussion than a world music festival! - you get the picture right?! Mark wore his spiritual and socio-political bents un-selfconsciously and they are laid bear here with such poetic, beautiful gentleness that you'll be crying out for more. Mark's lyrical creativity touches upon everything from domestic bliss under pressure (the humorous 'Shaky Situation') to the plight of illegal migrant workers (?) ('Another Day in Limbo') to the unseen presence of God in our lives ('Strong Hand of Love'). The bitter-sweetness of 'House of Broken Dreams' which mourns the fact 'That dreams are quickly spent/Like a pouring rain on dry cement/Or fingerprints in dust/Nectar on the wind/Save them for tomorrow and tomorrow lets you down again' is only one example of the lyrical gems on this album. Enjoy!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Until people start to listen...., March 6, 2000

By 

Sam Wise - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Noon (Audio CD)

If you've never heard Heard (sorry) then it's time you did. Criminally underrated, Bruce Cockburn called him America's greatest songwriter and Pierce Pettis swore to record a Heard song on every album until people started to pay attention. This is a great album, with all of his usual lyrical depth, but it's a little one paced. You should buy Dry Bones Dance if you want a real intro to Mark, but until that's available on Amazon, buy this. Great songs, relevant lyrics and lots of rootsy groove, you'll love it.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just a collector's item..., June 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: High Noon (Audio CD)

Literate, philosophical, introspective, but sensual and lively, this CD delivers a welcome kick in the head to shallow rock-themes and the morbid, self-absorbed ear-candy passing as folk music. The musical hooks are addictive and creative, often relying on unusally rich combinations of mandolin, guitar, fiddle and accordian; the drum-work on some of the tracks (listen to "Dry Bones Dance") rattles the bones. The arrangements are energetic, spare and honest, and the mood ranges from mournful to jubilant. In short, a thinking manic-depressive's perfect all-purpose disc for both the peaks and valleys.

As good as the music is, it's the lyrics which are too good to just hang in the air: they demand a close hearing, both for the ideas and the poetry.

Too often collection albums do serious injustice to the creative vision of an artist. Not so here. Dan Russell, Mark's friend and a good producer, has pulled together a collection designed both as a tribute to Mark's last three or four albums and as a really worthy offering to the newcomer to Mark's music.

If you want room-noise, go elsewhere. If you love edgy, confident folk-rock and are hungry for meaningful, engaging lyrics, spin this a few dozen times.