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Photo by Jacob Boll
“I happily talk to plants and trees and listen to them,” King Charles III once said, while admitting that whenever he takes part in a tree-planting ceremony, he gives one of the branches a little handshake to wish it well. “I think it’s absolutely crucial.”
Lady Apple Tree has gone one step further than the king, though, by singing to the trees. And why not?! We water them. We mist them. We carefully stroke their leaves and move them in and out of the sunlight. So why not serenade them too?
In her new single, the singer wanders through the orchards just hoping for a nice ripe apple to fall into her path and set her right. What ends up landing at her feet is a deliciously juicy bite of velvety Californian folk that brings to mind Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris or Judee Sill at their absolute dreamiest.
With its sisterly harmonies and softly sighing pedal steel, it’s the kind of sweetly melancholy country that simply blows in off a warm breeze in the dappled sunshine.
Lady Apple Tree is the project of Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Haylie Hostetter. Originally from Northern California, she moved to Los Angeles in her pursuit of music and became involved in projects including Sam Burton, Sylvie and Drugdealer. Hostetter released her debut single, a cover of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Didn’t Want to Have to Do It,’ in January while performing as support on Weyes Blood’s Europe tour. She released her first original composition ‘Silver Hands’ in April.
Hostetter was inspired to write the eponymous song, which was later chosen as her moniker, while visiting family in Northern California and admiring the orchards there.
“Farmers sometimes call their apple trees ‘ladies’ because they represent femininity,” says Hostetter. “Apples and their trees are seen throughout literary texts over time, and symbolize knowledge, ideas and life itself.”
Also, every great singer should have a theme tune. There should be a law that the first song ever to be released by anyone should be a song that has their name in it. The Monkees had one, Wilco had one, The Pipettes had one. Prince had a really good one which laid out very clearly exactly what his name was and that he was funky. The Clash had one. And now Lady Apple Tree has one.
The song is the title track to the forthcoming Lady Apple Tree EP, which was produced and recorded in an abandoned recording studio in Santa Monica Canyon by friends Will Worden and Hunter Watts.
The video for ‘Lady Apple Tree’ is premiering exclusively on Holler below
“I made a video with my friend and local artist Kate Bollinger,” Lady Apple Tree explained. “We shot on a hi8 video tape recorder around Altadena where I live. The video process with Kate was so fun. It felt feminine and youthful and touched on my playful inner child. We spend the day in our imagination filming by the river and the canyon. Kate has a bright, positive energy and is a pleasure to work with. She made our time together feel lighthearted and is a perfect conduit for creativity."
Lady Apple Tree’s debut self-titled EP is due September 15th and you can presave it here.
