Rob Raad: An Album for the Mountain Yellow-legged Frog
March 28, 2026
The album is available on Spotify.
Rob Raad: An Album for the Mountain Yellow-legged Frog
My buddy Rob Raad asked if I'd create music for an exhibit he was designing at Birch Aquarium. The exhibit—Imagine Wild—tells the story of the Mountain Yellow-legged Frog, an endangered species clinging to survival in the high-elevation lakes and meadows of Southern California. With fewer than 200 adults remaining in the wild before a 2025 release effort, these three-inch frogs needed their story told.
The album shares Rob's name. It felt right—he designed the exhibit, and his voice appears throughout the tracks in field recordings captured while releasing frogs back into their native habitat.
The Sound
Five tracks, recorded over a long weekend with whatever instruments were within in my room:
- I'll be back
- Frogs, man
- Dreamcraft
- Sim
- Valentine
The sound is: acoustic and electric guitar (strummed, plucked, and slid), ukulele, piano, and a wurlitzer that adds warmth to the quieter moments. Each track bleeds into the next for a seamless listening experience—the kind you'd want playing softly in an immersive exhibit space.
Woven through the music are two sets of field recordings: Rob's voice during the frog releases, and ambient sounds from my San Diego neighborhood. The frogs' mountain home and my coastal one, meeting somewhere in the middle.
The Exhibit
Imagine Wild transports visitors to an art exhibit of California mountainside—through forest, meadows, and lake habitats where these frogs once thrived. The exhibit explores the threats they face (habitat fragmentation, disease, drought, wildfire) and the conservation efforts giving them a second chance.
Birch Aquarium joined this effort in 2024, raising over 200 frogs from tadpoles to adults. In 2025, they partnered with the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance to release 350 frogs into the wild—one of the largest releases to date. True to the aquarium's sustainability commitment, 76% of the exhibit materials were reused or reclaimed.
If you're in San Diego, visit the exhibit at Birch Aquarium. Stand in the immersive space, listen for the frogs, and maybe you'll hear a bit of this music in the background.