We’ve all had at least one of those “near miss” experiences that haunt us, even years later, with the realization that everything we have—indeed, everything we are—might have been irrevocably lost, or at least dramatically changed, if things had gone differently. For this issue’s CD compilation, we approached 13 musical acts and asked them to create songs based on a close-call moment from their lives. Subjects range from life-or-death encounters to romantic misfires, and the brushes with fate that the musicians describe feel both personal and universal.

RELATED EVENT: “An Evening of Close Calls” at National Sawdust