What's Life Without Music? "The stories span across decades of experiences, mirroring our lives with music--how we come to experience music for the first time, how we grow with music, how music helps us to understand the world around us, the many ways in which music can help us heal, and its presence as we leave this world.".

• Position: LITERARY SCENE - Stories of Music - Book review

STORIES OF MUSIC, an interactive anthology series, brings a new reader experience to music lovers, combining the works of more than 80 authors and artists from around the world, whose stories go beyond the written word with accompanying music, videos, photography, and author readings.

Holly E. Tripp compiled and edited Stories. "Music is something we all have in common," she says. "It transcends religion, race, language, and even time. This universal nature of music is what I wanted to capture in this collection, and it was important to create a reader experience that would mirror the depth and dimensions of music itself."

Each book (two volumes currently are available) is presented as a print book with a free companion web edition for accessing multimedia works. The works within are interactive and inspiring, with true accounts of music changing lives.

The stories span across decades of experiences, mirroring our lives with music--how we come to experience music for the first time, how we grow with music, how music helps us to understand the world around us, the many ways in which music can help us heal, and its presence as we leave this world.

One of the first works in Vol. 1 is a poem, "If These Walls Could Sing" by Steve Givens, a writer, composer, and performer based in St. Louis, Mo., whose work has been featured in Emmy Award-winning PBS documentaries on the Gateway Arch and the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Givens' poem evokes music's lasting impact on our lives, and it suggests that, perhaps, once played, music never really goes away. Centered on one home--and its inhabitants over several years--Givens imagines the music that has played in the house over decades, and that the music remains somehow if, as he says, "we're willing to be still and listen."

Later in the book, readers will find "A Short Walk through Music's Long History: Musicians on foot, past and present," a historical work about a myriad of musicians throughout history--from the balladeers of Victorian England and the Delta bluesmen of the early 20th century to present-day musicians who participate in the Massachusetts Walking Tour. Written by Australian author and musician Ben Allmon, this story also includes a video featuring music by Massachusetts Walking Tour artists Raianne Richards and Mark Mandeville. The video was filmed during their 2014 tour and, after hiking along parts of the original routes for the Underground Railroad, they performed the code song...