Twenty-five years after the release of R.E.M.’s “Automatic for the People,” Hugh Crawford recalls how the album helped him mourn his father and reminded him to live “a life filled with joy and wonder.”

It’s been two decades since songwriter Allison Moorer’s friend Tim took his own life. But she still has the mixtape he made her. A beautiful essay about life, pain, and the power of music.

Rini Jeffers spent a lot of time visiting little churches where air-conditioning consisted of a “paper fan with a funeral home on one side and Jesus on the other” — places much like the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas.