The Fruit Trees is a recording project by Los Angeles-based songwriter Johnny Rafter, and includes a variety of other musicians. Their debut album, Weather was released on cassette and digital in June 2023 via the boutique label flower sounds. 

Did I get whacked behind the head by a canoe paddle and wake up in Anacortes, Washington? Did I drink the wrong 7-11 slushie and get dragged into the stock room at K Records bandana-blindfolded? What year is it, anyway?

Ladies and gentlemen, The Fruit Trees have incepted my brain with their nostalgic crayola-on-the-carpet sound, and it’s my pleasure to introduce them to you now. Please have a listen to this incredible track and meet me behind the library for some smoochin’. I’ll wait…

Alright, all nostalgic daydreams aside, how flippin’ great is that tune? And wait until you hear the rest of the record. Albums this good should not be flying as under the radar as this one… flower records printed up only 100 cassettes of Weather, as per their usual runs (it’s a great label by the way, for totally undiscovered talent), but I mean, come on.

Any one of these songs could be the closer in a Todd Solondz or Kelly Reichardt film, they could be making a teen couple cry in a Prague living room, or making freelancers’ heads bop slowly in a Brooklyn café.

On that precise point, mainly I commend Rafter for his vibe-creating ability in his songwriting. There’s a point at which this record ceases to be music, and becomes a full-on tea-scented invitation to sit on the rug in his living room. The day passes slowly there, the LA sun makes orange stripes on the walls at dusk and you talk about that, Ojai comes up (it always comes up), the melodica gets played and you’re lying on the couch listening to Karen Dalton, and then you hug and drive home.

It’s all there. It’s a hang. I’m there right now, you should come over.

One might be tempted to compare Rafter’s voice and songwriting quickly to The Microphones, and there’s definitely an influence trail there; albeit one covered with leaves and mud. Weather has an air to it that’s similar to The Glow, Part II for example — but where The Microphones truly embodies the full flow and experience of a “home recording project,” warts and all, The Fruit Trees reads more like “home recording in the ProTools era.” It’s focused.

Sure it’s tapey, it’s hissy, it’s got that DIY lo-fi patina for sure. But man does it also sound so, so rich. The Fruit Trees is the next ape standing in the line of evolution just to the right of where Devendra Banhart is slouched over, next to where Bonny “Prince” Billy is more identifiably hunched, and all the way to the left is Phil Elverum walking on all fours.

An instant classic if you ask me.

On Weather, Johnny Rafter is joined by a ton of guest musicians but he’s also responsible for the following: vocals, acoustic guitar, drums, melodica, bass, clarinet, keyboard, piano, marimba, banjo, glockenspiel, electric guitar, cowbell, tambourine, shaker, synth, sampler, field recordings. It’s hard to tell what isn’t him here. He also recorded and mixed the record.

Oh, and he also did the artwork.

One last note. This album somehow fell off a digital shelf and landed at my feet, at like 2am one night via the Bandcamp recommendation algorithm. I don’t profess to understand how the internet works but I can tell you that I wasn’t exactly seeking out indie-folk music that night. I don’t know how this happened but I clicked, I discovered, and a new rabbit hole formed right before my eyes for me to jump into, arms a-flalin’. I still haven’t found my way out.

My conclusion is this.

Embrace the unknown. Take a day out of your week of listening to the same playlists during business hours, or the same records from 1997 that make you feel nostalgic, and just click around, use tags, look up what’s being written about on blogs, peruse the local print rags collecting dust in your hood coffee joint, and find something new to listen to. You’ll never regret that time and your brain will thank you.

Listen and purchase here, please.