Chances are, you’ve never heard of John Mark Heard. Don’t worry, it’s not because you live under a rock—most, it would seem, have no idea who the Georgia-born folk rocker was, nor how indebted the modern music industry is to his body of work.
And when I write, “the modern music industry,” I don’t mean the pop singers who hog the limelight and the headlines, I’m talking about the real movers and shakers, the songwriters and producers who have raised the bar and built the pedestals on which many of those pop icons stand. People like Phil Keaggy, who is consistently ranked among the greatest guitarists to have ever lived, or renowned Canadian export and rebel folkster Bruce Cockburn, who famously called Heard “America’s best songwriter.” People like Pierce Pettis, of whom Oscar-winning composer Justin Paul of Dear Evan Hansen and La La Land fame once said, “Sometimes I have to stop listening to a Pierce Pettis track halfway through because he makes me want to…
