Burnover references Western and Central New York's burned-over district, named for the intense religious revivals of the Second Great Awakening. Greg Freeman grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, then moved to Burlington, Vermont to attend UVM and study religion and anthropology. Freeman draws on slightly tragic regional figures such as Joseph Smith and Ethan Allen and places them in the album's title track. The record functions as a series of snapshots of the non-urban American Northeast, featuring frozen lakes, open roads, pastures, and specific plant life rendered with a hazy vintage photographic sensibility. Influences include Nancy Rexroth's photobook IOWA and a black-and-white aesthetic in the "Point and Shoot" video. Themes of longing, nostalgia, and the tension of writing about a place one did not grow up in run throughout.
I wanted to write songs that made me understand Vermont and living where I did in the Northeast, but without having some kind of framework or lens that was only myself,
I was conscious of the fact that I wasn't trying to pretend like I was from somewhere that I'm not. It's hard to write about a place that you're not from. That creates a kind of tension in myself and maybe in the music, too.
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