Mark Heard 1975 LP: On Turning To Dust - A3 Cabin In Gloryland

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Mark Heard (Airborn 751005) 1975
How does one even begin to "review" one of Christian music's greatest songwriters? Well, let's get the statistical stuff out first - this is Mark's first solo effort after being involved in a High School band called Infinity Plus Three. Issued on a small custom label, this is actually the same album later released with the title 'On Turning To Dust'. The original Airborn issue is extremely rare and features an entirely different cover, a drawing of a butterfly. It comes with a large folded lyric insert and is described on the back as a "collection of attitudes concerned with life in the framework of Biblical Christianity". And so begins the journey of Christian music's most poetic and insightful artist - and a legacy that would span ten plus albums (not counting a couple of greatest hits releases). The music here falls into the simple acoustic category, similiar to 'Appalachian Melody'. Mark plays guitars, piano, synthesizer, and hambone (?) and succeeds in capturing a calm, tranquil mood, with some knee-slappin' hillbilly thrown in for good measure. A couple of songs get a string quartet accompaniment and there are some brief synthesizer hymn interpretations. Lyrically very simple and straightfoward. Later albums would mature both lyrically and in instrumental depth, but for peaceful inspiration this one's impossible not to like.
On Turning To Dust (AB 778) 1978
A re-titled pressing of his custom debut that was given greater distribution by Creative Sound. Released on the same label as Larry Norman's 'Steams Of white Light Into Darkened Corners'. Cover has a photo of Mark sitting in a rocking chair.

Mark Heard
LP: On Turning To Dust (Originally released as 'Mark Heard')
Released: 1975
Re-released: 1978
Label: Airborn Records, AB Records (1978)
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Folk, Folk Rock, Acoustic, Religious

Mark Heard: Guitar, Vocals, Piano, Synthesizer, Body Percussion [Hambone], Producer, Songwriter
Earl Grigsby: Bass
Frank Godby: Banjo
John Heinrich: Pedal Steel
Chuck Long: Sandblocks
Jim Pennington: Percussion
Percussion – Everybody In General
Strings – Lamay String Quartet
Strings Arranged By Dave Aldrich

Recorded At – Lemco Sound Studio, Lexington, Kentucky in June 1975
Producer – Dan Russell, Eric Townsend, Jason Townsend, Mark Heard
Engineer – Cecil Jones
Artwork By, Photography By, Cover Design: Jeff Van Sant

A1 On Turning To Dust (Mark Heard)
A2 Dinner At Grandma's (Jeff Van Sant, Mark Heard, Pat Terry, Wayne King)
A3 Cabin In Glory Land (O.A. Parris, O.A. Parris)
A4 A Friend (Mark Heard)
A5 Abba's Lullabye (Mark Heard)
B1 Solid Rock (Mark Heard)
B2 To Diane (Mark Heard)
B3 Greensleeves (16th Century English Melody)
B4 There Is A Fountain (Early American Melody, Words By William Cowper)
B5 Coming On Down The Road (Mark Heard)
B6 Passion Chorale (Music: Hans Leo Hassler, Marony – J.S. Bach, Words: Bernard Of Clairvaux)
B7 All (Mark Heard)

"This album is a collection of attitudes concerned with life in the framework of Biblical Christianity"
Other than the slightly-quirky use of a synthesizer in a few places, and a brief gospel hoedown on "Cabin in Gloryland", this is mostly an album of straight-ahead folk/pop in the vein of James Taylor. Sound quality is surprisingly-good for an obscure first release. While the lyrics aren't as interesting to me as Heard's later work, fans of simply-stated Christian themes will probably love this album.
On Turning to Dust is the first solo album by Mark Heard, originally released in 1975, and re-released on both AB Records and Solid Rock Records in 1978.

On July 4, 1992, Heard had a heart attack on stage while performing with Pierce Pettis and Kate Miner, at the Cornerstone Festival in Bushnell, IL, near Peoria. Heard finished his set and went to the hospital immediately afterwards. Two weeks after being released from the hospital, Heard went into cardiac arrest and died on August 16, 1992