Even those with a home sometimes find themselves wandering.
Tyler and Maggie Heath, more commonly known as the Oh Hellos, know this firsthand. They even wrote and produced an album in 2012 about this very concept. Through the Deep, Dark Valley was the result of the Heath’s pondering and was their first full-length album. The album introduces listeners to the band’s foot-stomping folk style and their poignant and provocative lyrics. The album is special because it tells a story that advances with each track.
The opening of the album sets the stage of the story the Heaths intend to tell. “Like the Dawn” draws us into the home we’ve been given with a retelling of the first meeting between Adam and Eve. The Oh Hellos are enjoying a special paradise when the curtain comes up. This is soon to change. A warning from a wise mentor comes in “Eat You Alive” where the aforementioned sage cautions his young charge that “there is no courage in flirting with fear just to prove you’re alive”. According to the concerned mentor, “Death, she is cunning and clever as hell. And she’ll eat you alive.”
Unfortunately, the young man (or woman) does not heed the warning and follows the siren song of the world in the track “Second Child, Restless Child”. The developing story begins to resemble the parable of the prodigal son as the young person leaves home and chases the Devil’s lies “hanging on the wind”. This audacious action quickly turns sour however as the next track “Wishing Well” reveals. The rebellious child cuts their hair, changes their name and lives recklessly but eventually bemoans the deal he has made with the Devil and ashamedly admits that to “dust again I fell”.
The prodigal son strain of the story is concluded in the next track “In Memoriam”. This is honestly my favorite song off the album and possibly my favorite song from the band in general. The prodigal child rehearses doubts in their mind (“you’re far too beautiful to love me”) but comes around to confidently return home knowing well that their father is “too beautiful to leave” them alone. They realize that “when you wage your wars against the one who adores you, you’ll never know the treasure that you’re worth.”
The four-part novella of the prodigal child sits in the first half of the album. The remaining songs essentially draw out the themes of wandering and returning home. One song in the second half of the album in particular, draws from C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia by sharing the story of Eustace Scrubb’s misadventures in “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, revealing the development of Eustace from a selfish boy in dragon’s skin to his redemption at the hands of Aslan.
The second-to-last track on the album is titled “The Truth Is A Cave”. It tells the story of a character who is immature in their understanding of truth and they strive to use their (primarily intellectual) faith to pave their own road to Heaven. Instead they realize that this is a “cave” (an allusion to Plato) and that it is not complete. Thankfully, there is a voice in the silence that calls out to them and leads back to the way of grace.
Considering the themes of wandering, doubt, and running from God that take center stage in the album, I think it’s appropriate that the story comes to a close with the humming of a chorus from the hymn “Come Thou Fount” which includes the lines: “Let thy goodness like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee.” The album offers a gripping, provocative story from start to finish, one that applies to every Christian as we all face doubt and wandering in different points in our walks of faith.