The real curse was remembering it alone. They had all taken the drug. All of them. “We never took anything,” they said.“What are you talking about?”“You must have imagined it.” […]

The world, as it turns out, is a master bureaucrat. It closes doors without looking up from its sandwich. First the manager quit. Then the label ghosted, proving corporations can […]

The café was wholesome, the kind of place where they had three types of non-dairy milk and spelled milk, mylk. Andy sat there feeling like a person at the wrong […]

It was late summer when Claire Bergen was invited to play at the International Peace Garden, south of town. The air was thick with bees and blossoms, the folding chairs […]

Maggie Stein had panic attacks the way some people have weather. They showed up. The temperature of her inside world changed. Then wandered off, no note. She was a musician. […]

Eli Strater sang old-time tunes. He never bothered thinking about the words, too busy moving his fingers up and down the strings. “Lyrics?” he laughed. “Just decorations. Like wallpaper.” But […]

Clara Rowe lived in a cramped apartment above a bar that played loud music until three in the morning. Most nights the floor vibrated like a dying animal. She sat […]

Barry Blume had been in the music business long enough to turn hope into profit and talent into something you could skim. He cut corners the way some people bite […]

In a small, sunlit room there lived a guitar named Maple. It was modest, warm in tone and slender in form, carved from a tree that had once stood alone […]

DAUGHTER:Did you see this? Another festival lineup. Twenty bands. Two women. MOTHER:That’s progress. When I started, we were zero women. DAUGHTER:It’s ridiculous. They say, “We booked whoever fit the vibe.” […]