Description
The Last Performance is an acoustic live album by the American singer and songwriter Mark Heard, posthumously released on Fingerprint Records in 2001. The title says it all – Mark Heard recorded on what would become his very last performance, at Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, Illinois, July 4, 1992. Mark had a minor heart attack on stage, but finished the set. Afterwards, he was taken to hospital. August 16, 1992, John Mark Heard passed away.
This is kind of a difficult review for me to write for various reasons. Being 51 years old, I have been listening to rock n roll since the earliest days of its existence and having become a Christian back in 1972, I can say the same for Christian rock. As a Christian, there are three men who have shaped what I listen to and consider to be good Christian music. Those three men are Jeff Johnson, Terry Taylor and Mark Heard. The first time that I heard Victims of the Age it totally redefined for me what Christian music could and should be. So it was with great anticipation that I attended my first Cornerstone back in ’92 because Mark was going to be playing on the fourth of July. The dilemma was that Mark was playing at the same time as Adam Again and I had become phone buddies with Riki Michele and had promised to go hear her band. So I did what any first timer would do, I divided my time running back and forth between the two shows.
I remember standing at the side of the stage watching Mark play tunes from his last three records and realizing why this man had such an impact on my musical tastes, he was without a doubt a genius lyrically and a great player on top of that. Seeing him, Pierce and Pam hold the audience in the palm of their hands was a sight that I will never forget. Now listening to the disc of that show just reminds me of why I loved his music so much, it is honest, passionate and it just cooks. Bill Mallonee had said after listening to and seeing the homemade video of the night that he could not tell when the actual heart attack occurred. He is right, I have listened to this disc at least three times today and it is a flawless performance by an artist who is throwing his whole soul into what he was doing. From the playing to the banter between Mark and the audience this was a night of pure magic which I will never forget and thanks to Fingerprint Records can enjoy over and over again.
If you are too young to remember Mark and are wondering what all the hubbub is about, then you owe it to yourself to purchase this disc. Part of the proceeds go to help out Mark’s widow and daughter. I can honestly say that in my opinion, Mark Heard was the most brilliant songwriter that this industry has ever seen. If you think that is just an over zealous fan being well over zealous, try listening to any of Mark’s albums and then something by Carman back to back. Enough said!!! [Chris MacIntosh, The Phantom Tollbooth, 1/31/01]
Mark Heard – Live at Cornerstone 92, Midnight Acoustic Encore Stage
OK, so I missed the first four tunes from Pierce Pettis, “Mama said there’d be days like this.”
Everything a body would want in a modern folkie you can get plenty of in Pettis: a down-home friendliness, a memorably idio-syncratic voice, a guitar style that could shine on its own but doesn’t detract from lyrical imagery that astutely illumines the human condition’s most comforting and problematic facets. Yeah, he’s on a bigger label than his current producer (Heard), with more clout to the yupster masses who would be blessed by exposure to the Pettis poetry and tunefulness. If only I could recall song titles…
Easier to recall, maybe because she is a she, is the solemnly lovely presence of Pam Dwinell-Miner. For everyone who hasn’t seen her but appreciates the vocal contributions she has made to many West Coast Christian hepsters’ releases, suffice it to say that she is a blonde possessed of the same kind of ethereal, angel-on-earth beauty as Sam Phillips in her more somber moments (of which there are plenty, right?). She accompanied both Pettis and Heard, and of course she deserves a solo deal for her haunting tone and presence (Ed note: She did record an album for Myrrh that was discarded by her record company when she became divorced from her first marriage. If Sandi Patti can continue to make records, maybe that fine effort will get it’s long overdue release, – BQN)
But ah, Mark Heard. One of the most commercially-underrated voices of intelligent belief in the ccm market. Here, with just his guitar and the assistance of Dwinell-Miner and Pettis, he shone in the intimacy of Cornerstone’s acoustic tent. Those in attendance at Heard’s 1990 Mainstage performance with small band must remember Heard’s distinct uneasiness with a throng so large and close.
Here, in a more personable setting, he was able to quip about his songs and his life. If the audience wasn’t exactly a close friend, at least we were an acquaintance he might have wanted to know better. The songs were largely culled from his last three albums: Dry Bones Dance, Second Hand and Satellite Sky. In those sets Heard has arguably lifted his art to its apex.
Certainly his trademark wry wit and melancholy were all over the place, with «Mercy of the Flame» a most tender assurance, the questioning “Why, why, why” of Satellite Sky, and the asides about America getting good at not giving a damn in «Long Way Down» and the inevitable dehumanizing of progress in «Big Wheels Roll» pitting Heard as a sharp political commentator.
Then it was over. It could have gone on until sun-up, and most of us would have been still enraptured by threesome’s sagacity and poetic/musical invention. [Jamie Lee Rake, Syndicate, Volume 7, Issue 4, 1992]
CD tracklist:
01. Moment of Silence
02. Rise From The Ruins
03. Dry Bones Dance
04. Nod Over Coffee
05. House of Broken Dreams
06. Satellite Sky
07. Tip of My Tongue
08. Orphans of God
09. Washed To The Sea
10. The Big Wheels Roll
11. I’m Looking Through You
12. Look Over Your Shoulder
13. My Redeemer Lives (Bonus Track)
Pierce Pettis and Mark Heard on stage at the Cornerstone Festival, July 1992.
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