Devendra Banhart exploded on the international music scene in 2002 quickly winning a coterie of devoted fans as well as an unusually hefty amount of critical kudos right from the outset. His latest release is Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, recorded at home in Topanga, CA throughout the Spring of 2007 co-produced by Noah Georgeson and Devendra. The critics’ acclaim and the size of his audience both at home and abroad earned by his debut Oh Me Oh My The Way The Day Goes By The Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs Of The Christmas Spirit was impressive to begin with and increased dramatically with each subsequent release: 2004’s Rejoicing In The Hands, Nino Rojo and 2005’s Cripple Crow. Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon is his second world-wide release on XL Recordings.

For the writing and recording of Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon Banhart set up housekeeping in a rustic hillside home in the longstanding bohemian enclave of Topanga, North of Los Angeles. Noah, Devendra and engineer Beauraymond Fletcher created their recording studio (known by a myriad of names including “P.I.G Studios” and “Relax the Eagle Unmask the Beagel”) in a second floor recreation room with a panoramic view of the canyon. Basic tracks were laid down using a core line-up of Banhart (guitar, piano, Cuatro, psaltery), Georgeson (zither, guitar, backing vocals, Hammond B-3, bass, et al), Luckey Remington (bass, guitar, background singing, water drum and freedom chime), Greg Rogove (drums, tablas, supporting vocals, geese and duck calls, pots and pans, mop stomp), and Pete Newsom (piano, keyboards, backing vox). The other main musical contributors being Rodrigo Amarante (from Brasil’s Los Hermanos on guitar and harmony vocals), Andy Cabic (guitar, vocal support) and Otto Hauser (drums).

The new album has a nocturnal feel with performances that respectively evoke hushed, twilight atmospherics or boisterous, late night partying. There’s wide but natural stylistic breadth evident, running the gamut of gently crooned ballads like “Bad Girl,” the loping Blues of “Saved,” epic rockers such as “Seahorse,” sprightly reggae tunes, sultry South American stunners like “Cristobal” and a few fun surprises mixed in for good measure. At the same time it’s a more focused effort. Where Cripple Crow sounded like Devendra trading licks with a never ending caravan of passing musical gypsies, Smokey is very much the work of a band, Devendra’s regular touring line-up strategically complimented by a few very special guests. The vocal arrangements are noticeably more intricate and ambitious with lush harmonies running through many of these numbers. The instrumental performances are comfortably loose but in-the-pocket a rich blend of acoustic and electric guitars, understated drumming and gentle percussion, diffident bass and a variety of downhome keyboards (venerable upright piano, Hammond B-3, sharp electric piano) subtly colored with the occasional lightest touch of strings or woodwinds.

Devendra Banhart was born in 1981 in Houston, TX then moved with his family to live with his grandmother in Caracas, Venezuela. When his mother remarried, the family relocated to Encinal Canyon in California where he first began to play music and learned to speak English. He attended the San Francisco Art Institute but dropped out without earning a degree. Banhart’s first public performance was at the wedding of two friends Jerry Elvis and Bob The Crippled Comic. He then began a period of globe-hopping moving to Los Angeles, then Paris, back to San Francisco, then to Los Angeles writing songs and performing when and wherever he could manage.

Devendra began making waves in underground music circles in 2002 with his debut album Oh Me Oh My The Way The Day Goes By The Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs Of The Christmas Spirit . The album was compiled by Young God Records owner Michael Gira from a voluminous collection of audio Post-It notes of songs Banhart had accumulated whilst hoboing around the world, recorded on sundry answering machines and a cassette machine borrowed from his good friend Noah Georgeson. Over the course of 2003, Oh Me Oh My… became a grass roots sensation attracting a passionate and rapidly growing audience as well as abundant praise from the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Arthur Magazine, Rolling Stone, LA Weekly, and Magnet among others. Two extensive U.S. tours followed, one with his friend Entrance and the other opening for Gira’s Angels Of Light as well as performing as a member of the band.

After these tours, Banhart retreated to rural Georgia with co-producer Gira sitting on a stool recording from daybreak to sundown laying down some 32 tunes. There was a small amount of post-production done but the two albums that resulted from these sessions, Rejoicing In The Hands and Nino Rojo emerged primarily as showcases for Banhart’s deft acoustic guitar work and increasingly sophisticated singing and writing. When these albums were released in Spring and Fall 2004 respectively, Devendra’s following became still larger and more zealous and two headlining tours packed venues across the country and overseas. Meanwhile, journalists on both sides of the Atlantic were unstinting in their praise in publications like the Sunday New York Times, Mojo, Spin, The Washington Post, Harp, and the Village Voice to name but a few. In England he appeared on national television on the prestigious “Later…With Jools Holland”.

Cripple Crow was recorded at Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, NY late Winter ’05 with regular sidekicks Andy Cabic, Noah Georgeson and Thom Monahan joining Devendra in the studio with Noah co-producing with Banhart. While many songs were spare and acoustic other performances featured a more elaborate range of electric instruments. Cripple Crow was released September ’05 to overwhelming critical acclaim from publications including Rolling Stone, Mojo, Sunday New York Times Magazine Harp and Paste among many others. He then toured with his “Hairy Fairy” band filling large halls across the U.S. In 2006 he played large, prestigious music festivals around the world including America’s Coachella, and Bonnaroo as well as curating his own mini-festival at Los Angeles’ El Cid club, "Hypnorituals and Mesmemusical Miracles Hanging in the Sky: 5 Nights of Soleros and Bandoleros." In February 2007 he headlined the “Welcome To Dreamland” bill at New York’s Carnegie Hall, a line-up hand picked by ex-Talking Heads David Byrne featuring many of Devendra’s friends and musical cronies including Vetiver, Vashti Bunyan and CocoRosie.

In tandem with his musical accomplishments Banhart has gained considerable recognition as a visual artist. His distinctive, minutely inked, often enigmatic drawings appeared in a group show at the Canada Gallery in lower Manhattan Summer of ‘04, then uptown at the Roth Horowitz Gallery in his first solo show later in the year. Devendra’s artwork graced the covers of his first three full-length CD releases and one EP.

He also became known as an outspoken champion of other musicians, mainly the uncommon and underexposed among his contemporaries as well as musical forebears. He regularly cited “lost” artists like Karen Dalton, Linda Perhacs, Clive Palmer and Vashti Bunyan (with whom he recorded the title track of Rejoicing In The Hands as a duet and who appears on Smokey), as important inspirations and brought them among others to the attention of wider audiences than they’d experienced in decades. Vashti Bunyan consequently went on to record her first new album in 30 years and tour for the first time in her life to adoring audiences and enormous critical acclaim. He has been generous in his public support of other young, adventurous musicians as well (the list runs to phone book length) which has been a key factor in the public and press’ acknowledgement of the far flung, grass roots community of musicians loosely bound by a mutual love of eccentric vintage acoustic music (ala Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music) AND formidable avant-garde experimentation; this has since been documented in publications such as the New York Times, Spin, Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, and numerous others.

Devendra Banhart has emerged as one of the most fascinating, unpredictable and inspiring artists of his generation and with Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon he continues to surprise and delight an ever-increasing audience of fans and critics alike.
Those who have seen him live can further attest to this fact and Devendra is touring extensively around the globe in the Fall and Winter of 2007 so be sure to catch him if you can.