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In the mid-1980s Heard made a quick exit from the CCM scene. Without a record contract himself, he produced records for other artists, performed occasionally, and kept making music. Finally, in 1990 he established his own label, Fingerprint Records, and released three albums that were, in a word, stunning; one critic went so far as to posit that "arguably, no artist has crafted three consecutive albums with both the lyrical radiance and the musical vibrancy to rival The Dry Bones Dance, Second Hand, and Satellite Sky."

As he was nearing an agreement with a mainstream label in 1992, he died at the age of 40 after suffering two heart attacks.

By the time he recorded his last three records, the dense brilliance of his art crowned a pilgrimage of unusual intensity, honesty, intelligence, and pain. On his last record, he describes himself as a "broken man … outcast on the outskirts of the promised land"—poignant evocation of his bewildered disappointment at so many levels. But he goes on in the album's last song to steer the listener toward another lonely place, where triumph mingles always with pain.

I saw the city at its tortured worst
And you were outside the walls there
You were relieved of a lifelong thirst
I was dry at the fountain
I knew that you could see my shame
But you were eyeless and sparing
I awoke when you called my name
I felt the curtain tearing

It's a fitting final confession for a man who sought above all to help us to be true. Of his many gifts to us, this was his greatest. Fortunately for us, it's a gift that keeps on giving. Maybe someday we'll receive it.

Eric Miller directs the humanities program at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The book and album have an official website.

Hammers & Nails: The Life and Music of Mark Heard is available at Amazon.com and other retailers. The Cornerstone Press Chicago website offers an excerpt of the book.

The Hammers and Nails album is available at Pastemusic.com.

Other good Mark Heard sites are Mark Heard Remembered, the Mark Heard Lyrics Project, and The Mark Heard Tribute Project.

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September 2003, Vol. 47, No. 9