In the 1810 Caspar David Friedrich painting “Abbey in the Oakwood,” a group of monks carries a coffin through the snow into the crumbling ruins of a gothic abbey. Beyond the abbey, a grove of bald, gnarled oak trees basks in the dim sunlight. Death lingers, but not its fresh …

I was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2013, immediately following a summer tour with my band. It was a nightmare. I’m a full-time songwriter, and my specific type of tumor — an “acoustic neuroma,” which sits on one’s hearing nerve, causing terrible damage to the surrounding real estate — …

This story was originally published by Searchlight New Mexico and is posted here as part of an ongoing collaboration with Rolling Stone. SHIPROCK, N.M. — In the fertile northeast corner of the Navajo Nation, fields that only months ago were traditional open-air corn farms are now stuffed with hundreds of …