If a picture’s worth a thousand words, a portrait is at least worth a song. Or maybe even 32 songs. Well, with 32 portraits, in this situation.

Off The Air — a Modesto-based production company headed by Greg Edwards — released a compilation album titled “Portraits” on May 1.

The double disc compilation contains 32 new and original songs by 32 different artists that have performed at events hosted by Off The Air (most of them have also performed in Merced.)

Along with the release of the compilation “Portraits,” a photography exhibit consisting of individual portraits of each songwriter will be displayed at Deva Café in Modesto during the month of May, where the compilation will be sold.

“I’ve always wanted to put out a compilation, to really let people know on a larger scale about the musicians that play the Off The Air shows,” said Edwards in a recent e-mail interview. “I’ve talked about it a lot the last few years, threw different ideas around, but this idea, the incorporate-a-visual-aspect photography idea just really stood out.”

Decidedly an acoustic guitar-oriented compilation, Edwards’ instructions to participants were simple: Record new songs in a quiet manner. It was up to each songwriter to interpret what “quiet” means to them.

Photos for “Portraits” were taken by Doug Holcomb of Nine by 9 Photography. A reception for the entire project will be held on May 14 at Deva Café, where some of the participating songwriters will perform their song from the compilation.

Edwards went on to say: “Loads of people complain about there being nothing to do out here in the Valley, how it sucks, how they can’t wait to leave. And what I hope people find in this project is the reality that they can actually live their lives here despite the seemingly overwhelming consensus that you can’t; that they can create their own culture, pursue their dreams for their music and art, grow and flourish, even if they are just passing through on their way to a different place.”

Joey No Knows, part owner of The Partisan and member of Merced-based El Olio Wolof, has a new song on the compilation, “Tule Fog.”

“The song is pretty much about making the run from Merced to Oakdale on the back roads. That thick fog is coming in, he can hardly see the road, but the guy in the song is running it flat out, trying to get to a party before his girl gets caught up with another man and the whole time he’s daring the Devil and God to do something about it,” he said. “The song never really tells if he gets there. I like to think that maybe he doesn’t, that he crashed and is in purgatory just doing the same run over and over, still daring the Devil or God to do something about it.”

Some of the other songwriters on the compilation are All Smiles, also known as Jim Fairchild (formerly of Grandaddy), Shelley Short, Silver Darling, Built Like Alaska, Chris Doud and Willy Tea Taylor of the Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, Mike Sempert of Birds & Batteries, Garrett Pierce, and Travis Vick.

Off The Air plans on taking the photography exhibit to Sacramento, San Francisco and hopefully a stop in Merced this summer. Each exhibit will have a reception similar to the one on May 14 in Modesto.

Dates and locations for these events will be posted at http://www.32singers32songs.blogspot.com — which is also the address for the online sales of the compilation.

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