{"id":575,"date":"2008-08-12T08:42:43","date_gmt":"2008-08-12T13:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/homepages.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2008\/08\/12\/father-of-contemporary-christian-music-an-honored-bu-alum\/"},"modified":"2016-01-25T22:20:48","modified_gmt":"2016-01-25T22:20:48","slug":"father-of-contemporary-christian-music-an-honored-bu-alum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/2008\/08\/father-of-contemporary-christian-music-an-honored-bu-alum\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Father of contemporary Christian music&#8217; an honored Baylor alum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/08\/billyrayhearn-aug08.jpg\" alt=\"Billy Ray Hearn\" align=\"right\" \/><em>[4\/16\/15 update: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennessean.com\/story\/entertainment\/music\/2015\/04\/16\/christian-music-pioneer-billy-ray-hearn-dies\/25861527\/\" target=\"_blank\">Billy Ray Hearn passed away Wednesday<\/a> at age 85 due to\u00a0complications from heart disease. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Baylor alum <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emicmg.com\/press\/billyRay.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Billy Ray Hearn<\/a> is recognized by many as the father of contemporary Christian music, and a quick glance at his resume shows why.<\/p>\n<p>In 1972, Hearn started <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Myrrh_Records\" target=\"_blank\">Myrrh Records<\/a>, one of the first labels dedicated to contemporary Christian music, at Word Inc. in Waco. Four years later, he formed his own label, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sparrow_Records\" target=\"_blank\">Sparrow Records<\/a>. He sold Sparrow to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/EMI\" target=\"_blank\">EMI<\/a> in 1992 and semi-retired four years later but continued to stay involved with the world of Christian music.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, his labels have included artists ranging from <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Keith_Green\" target=\"_blank\">Keith Green<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/2nd_Chapter_of_Acts\" target=\"_blank\">2nd Chapter of Acts<\/a> to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Steven_Curtis_Chapman\" target=\"_blank\">Steven Curtis Chapman<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/BeBe_%26_CeCe_Winans\" target=\"_blank\">BeBe and CeCe Winans<\/a>. Hearn even executive produced <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Andy_Griffith\" target=\"_blank\">Andy Griffith&#8217;s<\/a> Grammy-winning album &#8220;I Love to Tell the Story.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A 1954 church music graduate, Hearn served on Baylor&#8217;s Board of Regents for nine years and was honored by the Baylor Alumni Association as a distinguished alumnus in 1995. Earlier this month, he was honored with the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylor.edu\/pr\/news.php?action=story&amp;story=52039\" target=\"_blank\">2008 Award for Exemplary Leadership in Church Music<\/a>, given by Baylor&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baylor.edu\/christian_music\" target=\"_blank\">Center for Christian Music Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sic \u2019em, Billy Ray Hearn!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[4\/16\/15 update: Billy Ray Hearn passed away Wednesday at age 85 due to\u00a0complications from heart disease. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.] Baylor alum Billy Ray Hearn is recognized by many as the father of contemporary Christian music, and a quick glance at his resume shows why. In 1972, Hearn started [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,20,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-faith","category-history","category-honors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.baylor.edu\/baylorproud\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}