Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon Review

Where better for a wiry, bearded, impish purveyor of "freak folk" to set up hippy happy homely heaven than in California's bohemian Topanga? For Devendra Banhart's fourth solo effort, Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, he and co-producer Noah Georgeson holed up in the hills north of LA-la-land and laid down a mere 16 tracks. His 2005 effort Cripple Crow comprised of 24. Can it be that he's slowing down?...full text In the age of computerized music-listening, calling an album "too long"-- a dubious complaint even two decades ago, when CDs first made track-skipping simpler-- seems absurdly outdated. After all, it's easy enough to make an iTunes playlist of a record's best songs, right? So I don't get it when people call Devendra Banhart's albums too long. Not only is that problem easy to rectify, but his rambling style needs room to breathe, and space to wander toward its inspirations. Banhart's valleys have rarely diminished his peaks, and often provided ramps to them....full text The messiah has returned. He’s still a bearded hippie, but now he’s dressing up in drag. It’s a freaky look on a folkie. Funny, I thought Devendra Banhart preferred the Naturalismo sobriquet. Now, I’m not saying it’s un-natural for a dude to look like a lady; still, I can’t but feel that Banhart is trying to further break down our assumptions about what it means to be a folk musician in the 21st century (if he’s actually a folk musician at all, that is)....full text