Fruit Bats [solo] - “It All Comes Back”

SXSW 2023 - OEB Score: 8; Popularity Index: 7

Pairs Well With…Zach Bryan, Dawes, Hiss Golden Messenger

Alt-country songsmith Eric D. Johnson is Fruit Bats, this year heading to SXSW solo with a twenty-year-plus catalog in tow, his tenth A River Running To Your Heart due later this year. Reliable and detailed, Fruit Bats has an instant air of authenticity. His music tends to be both lush and quiet, fulfilling and vulnerable. He’s the kind of artist that makes it all sound so easy, crafting perfect little pop/rock tunes under slide guitars and slow, steady drum rhythms. There are some subtle psych-rock and jam influences that creep into the Fruit Bats sound as well, never leaping off the cliff, but instead just rounding out an already rich and natural layer of sonic bliss. There’s a few early singles already from A River Running To Your Heart that don’t change the working Fruit Bats formula, expanding an already great set of music from one of indie folk’s best. Fruit Bats showcases Thursday night at Continental Club with their label Merge Records and Friday night at Lucille for Gold-Diggers & Aquarium Drunkard. (Kevin McStravick)