Let the Mystery Be

It is track one of Infamous Angel. DeMent dropped it from her list the day before the sessions began, and producer Jim Rooney insisted it go back in. Pitchfork names it with Our Town as her first two songs. Robert Christgau rated it above Our Town, and Folk Alley, writing on the 2022 reissue, said it was not going to fly on country radio.

It was used in the opening scenes of the film Little Buddha (1993). A version from the Transatlantic Sessions, filmed in the 1995 series, became the opening theme of the second season of The Leftovers in the fall of 2015, replacing Max Richter's main title theme, and it returned as the theme of the series finale. setlist.fm logs it 88 times, her most-played song.

Covers

Covers include those by 10,000 Maniacs, whose Unplugged version featured David Byrne of Talking Heads, and by Alice Stuart. Doug Cox recorded it on Canadian Borderline in 2007.