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April 20, 2023
Scott Foley, purveyor of dust
Fruit Bats' Eric D Johnson has a fine voice for folk music. Like Kristian Matsson from Tallest Man on Earth, Johnson's delivery is unconventional, but he's used it to his full extent over the span of ten records. I mention this because Johnson isn't the first artist that comes to mind for a cover of Ewan MacColl's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face". But there he is on Aquarium Drunkard's Lagniappe Sessions doing just that. Perhaps a bit closer to home, Johnson also delivers an admirable take on Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'". He doesn't try to be Roberta Flack, and while he cites a Gosdin Brothers version as partial inspiration, it simply sounds like Fruit Bats performing one of the most beautiful songs of all time.
At this point, Eric D Johnson can do whatever he likes. With stints with Vetiver, Califone and Shins, and more recently alongside Anais Mitchell and Josh Kaufman in Bonny Light Horseman, the man has proven his reach and range. 2021 even saw him releasing a full-scale cover of Smashing Pumpkins' iconic Siamese Dream. 'Neath the Fruit Bats nom de plume, his output has leant into indie folk, California country, pop and psychedelic, acoustic and electric. More recently, 2019's Gold Past Life and Pet Parade ('21) witnessed Johnson growing outward and upward to embrace a fuller, more expansive sound.
As the only true member of Fruit Bats, Johnson typically maintains a hand in the production of his albums. It's a bit of a surprise that A River Running To Your Heart marks his debut as a solo producer. With occasional programmed percussion and electronic keyboards, the collection is also his most studio-processed to date. Among Johnson's more soul-adjacent tracks, "Deep Well" is temporarily suspended by a late-80's synthesizer break until it rediscovers its groove. The highlight "Rushin' River Valley" bears an insistent tempo built on tik-tok bass and programmed click drum. With a busy guitar line in the vein of Vampire Weekend, the song sweeps the listener into its appealing current: My love is what the flood / Can't wash away, sings Johnson. A digital pulse underlies "See the World By Night".
Eric D Johnson's stint as one-third of Bonny Light Horseman likely fulfilled his more folky tendencies, so that even River's more organic moments aren't especially pastoral. He is joined by his Vetiver friend Andy Cabic on "We Used To Live Here", a meditation on our attachment to simpler times and places: Do you remember this place, he asks. Featuring one of Johnson's more expressive vocals, the song presents one of the album's abiding themes of home, widely defined. "It All Comes Back" offers, We lost our way / We lost a sense of place. With palm trees visible on its stylized, hazy cover art, the collection reminds us of Johnson's relative rootedness in Southern California. On "Waking Up in Los Angeles", he muses: We all want a home / Metaphorical or real / Some place to make us feel home.
Fruit Bats' likeability doesn't dwell in their philosophizing, but in the loose roots-oriented currents, as much pop as they are indie- or folk-. Like Blitzen Trapper's Eric Earley or James Mercer of the Shins, Johnson demonstrates great pop instincts, tendencies that have becomes honed with each subsequent project. There's a Father John Misty element to "Tacoma", curiously not the first ode to Seattle's less celebrated neighbor to the south: Back where the smell of the saltwater mingles / With the stink of the paper mill ... Johnson adds twinkling keys and a near-falsetto to his sweet tribute. That higher register also appears on "Sick of This Feeling", a tune that showcases Johnson's under-celebrated soul.
The songwriter has deployed the phrase emotional geography to target the focus of A River Running To Your Heart. Rather than a lovesong to a particular map-bound place, Eric D Johnson's new work is a recognition of a mindset, a heart-home as opposed to a physical space. Whatever his focus, Johnson has proven to be a captivating artist, as at home singing his own creations as trying his hand at Smashing Pumpkins or Roberta Flack. As he declares at the new LP's final cut: Jesus tap dancing Christ / It's good to be home.
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Let's also take advantage of this most rare asynchronous post by taking a glance at A Routes & Branches Guide To Feeding Your Monster, our generously updated new release calendar. Since last we checked, we've added a forthcoming record from desert soul artist RF Shannon. Keeled Scales will be sharing Red Swan in Palmetto on May 26. Longtime favorite Austin Lucas is taking an interesting sidetrip with his next collection. Due June 2 on GrindEthos, Reinventing Against Me! is an assortment of reinterpretations of songs from Laura Jane Grace and co. Roots-adjacent pop artist Jenny Lewis hasn't released a full record since 2019's On the Line. We can expect Joy'All to end that drought on June 9 (Blue Note). Drive-by Truckers' next project is a revisioning of their seminal 2004 record. Complete Dirty South will feature three new cuts, some remixed tunes and re-recorded vocals here and there. It'll all drop via New West on June 16. Finally, Gabe Lee is one of the most engaging writers on this side of the country equation. He'll take no time in publishing Drink the River on Torrez Records come July 14.
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