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By Douglas John Imbrogno | May 13, 2023 | TheStoryIsTheThing.substack.com

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In my mind, it is one of my more radical tunes. Originally titled “Godless Appalachian Haiku,” it is the next-to-last song that concludes my debut album from 2004, intended as an epic send-off before the final short tune (“Next Country Over”) which finishes that recording. The album (hear it on Spotify in its entirety) is titled “Saint Stephen’s Dream” by ‘garagecow ensemble’ — not really a band, but an ad hoc assemblage of some of West Virginia’s finest musicians, hired to interpret my first serious batch of tuneage.

I have since renamed the song “Lo and Behold (A Godless Appalachian Haiku)” — and below are two versions. If you’re willing to humor an itinerant, weekend singer-songwriter, listen to both and indicate which you prefer. After I posted a recently-recorded solo version to the web (the one at the bottom of the page), I was intrigued when a dear friend said she preferred it to the full-on studio version from 2004. That initial version (right below) features a killer keyboard part by Maynard Chapman that was intended to sound a bit like a hurdy-gurdy, ethereal harmonies by Heidi Muller, and first-class production by Bob Webb.

To each our own! And, of course, there is room in my small musical oeuvre for both the fancy and the stripped-down versions.

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‘Lo and Behold’ | Original Version, 2004 | CLICK TO LISTEN

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So, the song is radical-ish how? Here is how I describe “Lo and Behold” these days. It is a conversation with God about the whole idea of God, by a fallen altar boy and retired Roman Catholic. The song posits the notion that ‘Lo and Behold!‘ is a sentiment also to be found outside the confines and constrictions of organized religion. And, maybe, after all, that is its true home. It depends on how you define ‘god,’ after all.

A dear friend, who has since passed on and was quite religious in her latter years, told me her ambivalent feelings about this song. She loved it, she said. But she also appeared a bit disquieted by it, wondering if perhaps the song was written from the perspective of someone who didn’t even believe in God?

I’ll let you determine that. However you land on the ‘god’ question, though, maybe is immaterial, in the end. After all, everywhere you turn can be an occasion for exclamations of ‘Lo and behold …’ Unless you are imposing your definition of ‘god’s will‘ on the daily existence of other people. On people who may fundamentally disagree with your bossy, imperious god’s directives about how everyone else should be confined and constricted, controlled and constrained.

Still, though. How we grieve for the idea of god!

And yet …

Lo and behold.

Perhaps our beholdings can be found outside the standard definitions on offer …

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‘Lo and Behold’ | Solo Version, 2023 | CLICK TO LISTEN

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LYRICS | “Lo and Behold (A Godless Appalachian Haiku”
by Douglas John Imbrogno

(copyright 2004/2023)

Blown by wind, pear blossoms blow
Down city streets like a puff of snow …
Lo and behold …

Strong wind bends the gingko trees,
like a curling wave in the bright blue seas …
Lo and behold … Lo and behold!

CHORUS:
O, God, you are such a fine idea.
O, Lord, how I wish you were.
O, God, please pray for those who don’t believe …
O, Lord, how we grieve — for thee.

Hilltop filled with marching pine.
Evening sun the color of dark red wine …
Lo and behold…

Sparrow chases cowbird away
from the nest where sparrow’s new eggs lay …
Lo and behold … Lo and behold!

CHORUS:
O, God, you are such a fine idea.
O, Lord, how I wish you were.
O, God, please pray for those who don’t believe …
O, Lord, how we grieve — for thee.

O, God, you are such a fine idea.
O, Lord, how I wish you were.
O, God, please pray for those who don’t believe …
O, Lord, how they grieve — for thee.

INSTRUMENTAL

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