I was invited to perform at the opening of the Whitney Museum's exhibit "Heat Waves in a Swamp: The Paintings of Charles Burchfield" last year. I'd never heard of Burchfield before, but loved the whimsy, darkness, and grandeur of his giant watercolors, and wrote this pair of songs as an attempt to evoke some of his paintings in sound, since Burchfield often tried to depict sounds in his paintings. At the performance, I was joined by Andy Stack of Wye Oak, who set his drums aside and instead played keyboard, melodica, and a variety of sampled insect and frog songs from Burchfield's beloved Ohio. These songs will be issued on vinyl as part of Graveface Records' charity singles series in 2012. (JM)