"What you love can be what destroys you."

One could argue I shouldn't touch this book here. Philip Stephens' Miss Me When I'm Gone comes with its own soundtrack. Musician Cyrus Harper returns to his hometown of Apogee, Missouri shortly before his mother's death. He has spent years chasing the ghost of his missing sister, Saro, in California. He finds the area decaying much in the way of his memories and hope of finding what, and who, he is looking for. And changing. Stephens fills the past and present of his story with traditional songs of the Ozarks - songs that Cyrus, Saro, and a cast of colorful characters sing, play, and carry themselves on like lifeboats. Embedded within this novel is the musical history of a region. 

Running at angles destined for collision are the stories of Cyrus and Margaret Bowman, a murderess on the run to the daughter she lost. Meanwhile, Stephens provides an education in songs. He is an expert. I cannot possibly attempt to share the legacy of these Ozarkian songwriters and songplayers. Instead, my mixtapes (there are two!) play these intertwining tales in modern music rooted in the folk songs of Cyrus and Saro's by-gone days (The Avett Brothers, Ben Sollee, The Civil Wars, Jakob Dylan), in music as heavy as the burdens the characters shoulder (Dead Confederate, Deer Tick), as terrifying as the loneliness they feel (The Slip, Elliott Smith), in songs ominous and full of loss. I created playlists for both Cyrus and Margaret, trying to tunefully trace their journeys in separate soundtracks, but with songs by (mostly) shared artists. Just like in the novel, I wanted their paths to cross in some way.

Every mixtape starts in some moment. It might make Mr. Stephens cringe, but here it begins with a music video by a trio of Australian teenagers. Miss Me When I'm Gone begins like this: "The hog-eyed man returned to her...his blood-black eyes reflected what moonlight filtered through the window. He grinned, and his gums shone." These hog-eyed men - constant demons of the Harpers' minds (and story) - are Cyrus' mother's undoing, maybe someday his. My image of these creatures came creeping in via an MTV memory from my early, grunge-tastic teen years - the greedy, hog-faced monsters of Silverchair's "Tomorrow". As unlikely as it feels that this song should soundtrack this story (I'm still not sure it should), I knew I had to include it on Cyrus' soundtrack. For me, "Tomorrow" is the way the Harpers' hog-eyed men stalk the mixtape. I couldn't get this damn song (and video) out of my head. The song invites the listener to a little town that is a dreadful place, churns in anger that Cyrus feels, eludes to the greed of his brother Isaac's vulture-like circling of the family land as he waits to complete the gentrified condo-ization of Apogee as a memorial to mom.

But a mixtape needs more than a song to exist, to tell a story. Along with the artists mentioned above, I wanted to shade these playlists with female voices that could tell Cyrus and Margaret's stories while feeling reminiscent of Saro Harper's legend - lending nightingale voices to the story's most important ghost. Earthy Emmylou Harris and angelic Alison Krauss were early additions. Before her disappearance, Saro and Cyrus were a duo of stagelings. For this, I also chose duets (and a triad) featuring the magical voices of Joy White (The Civil Wars), Kate Long (Release the Sunbird), and Neko Case and Kelly Hogan (Jakob Dylan ft. Three Legs). Gillian Welch sings of mistakes and endings. "That's the way the cornbread crumbles. That's the way the whole things ends."

Sountrack to a novel: Miss Me When I'm Gone, Philip Stephens

These Old Shoes, Deer Tick

Cyrus

1. Evil is Alive and Well, Jakob Dylan

2. Home Sweet Home, Emmylou Harris

3. Piece by Piece and Frame by Frame, Deer Tick

4. My Father's Father, The Civil Wars

5. Gone, The Black Crowes

6. I Don't Think I'm Ever Going to Figure It Out, Elliott Smith

7. Tomorrow, Silverchair

8. Echo/Always On/EZ Con, Blitzen Trapper

9. My Lady and the Mountain, The Avett Brothers

10. Life in Disguise, The Slip

11. Wrecking Ball, Dead Confederate

12. Pig Food, The Middle East

13. Come Back to Us, Release the Sunbird

14. Dead American Writers, Tired Pony

15. Copper and Malachite, Ben Sollee

16. Lay My Burden Down, Alison Krauss & Union Station

Margaret

1. Walkin' for You, The Avett Brothers

2. Paper Birds, The Slip

3. The Way It Goes, Gillian Welch

4. Dear Companion, Ben Sollee & Daniel Martin Moore

5. Get Out, Dead Confederate

6. Without You, Silverchair

7. Anywhere I Lay My Head, Tom Waits

8. Holy Rollers for Love, Jakob Dylan ft. Three Legs

9. Fire and Fast Bullets, Blitzen Trapper

10. Lie Awake, Alison Krauss & Union Station

11. Barton Hollow, The Civil Wars

12. I Am a Landslide, Tired Pony

13. Christ Jesus, Deer Tick

14. Another Roadside Tragedy, The Black Crowes

15. Bye, Elliott Smith

The Way The Whole Thing Ends, Gillian Welch

Listen to this mixtape on Spotify (partial)