Devendra Banhart Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon CD

Like its predecessor CRIPPLE CROW, SMOKEY ROLLS DOWN THUNDER CANYON finds freak-folk figurehead Devendra Banhart expanding his musical palette to new heights of eclecticism. Acoustic folk, augmented by stream-of-consciousness lyrics and Banhart's seductive quaver, is still the main ingredient on this collection of tunes, but an assortment of styles--including samba, klezmer, music hall, gospel, soul, jazz, rock, and pop balladry--make their way into the mix.

At first listen, Banhart's intensely willful variety might seem distracting, and at times the album does bite off more than it can chew. On the whole, however, SMOKEY is unified in tone. Recorded in Banhart's Topanga Canyon studio in the hills of Santa Monica, home of historic recording sessions by Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and other icons of folk-rock, SMOKEY floats with the hazy feel of early 1970s California, especially on shimmering acoustic gems ("Seaside") or tunes that draw on gospel and country ("Saved").

Deluxe Edition

Audio Mixers: Devendra Banhart; Noah Georgeson.

Recording information: California.

Photographer: Lauren Dukoff.

Personnel: Devendra Banhart (vocals, guitar, cuatro, psaltery, ukulele, piano, percussion); Devendra Banhart; Noah Georgeson (vocals, guitar, bandora, charango, piano, organ, Wurlitzer organ, percussion); Rodrigo Amarante (vocals, guitar, melodica, bass guitar, percussion); Pete Newsom (vocals, piano, organ, Wurlitzer organ, drums, percussion); Gregory Rogove (vocals, drums, tabla, percussion); Erin Turnmire, Gio Cianci, Maggie O'Brien, Gael Garcia Bernal, Mona Lisay, Gael García Bernal, Elliot Roberts, Monalisa Young (vocals); Section Quartet (strings); Lauren Dukoff, Lauren Dukoff (flute); Amy Tatum (alto flute); Members Of Madeline Flash (horns); Benjamin Oak Goodman (drums); Pete News Om, Greg Rogo Ve (drum set); Luckey Remington (vocals, acoustic guitar, percussion); Andy Cabic (vocals, acoustic guitar); Matteah Baim, Julia Waters, Linda Perhacs, Maxine Willard Waters, Vashti Bunyan (vocals); Chris Robinson (charango); Eric Gorfain, Daphne Chen (violin); Leah Katz (viola); Richard Dodd (cello); Mike Davis (trumpet, flugelhorn); Noah Gladsone (trombone); Otto Hauser (drums); Nathan Pelkey (kalimba).

Additional personnel: Elliot Roberts, Aram Goldberg, Sarah Foster, Beau Raymond (vocals); Erin Turnmire, Gio Cianci, Maggie O'Brien.

Rolling Stone (p.71) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[H]ere his music has a renewed sense of wide-open space....His lyrics are just clouds passing through the sky, and his melodies are trees to climb."
Rolling Stone (p.111) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Top Albums of the Year 2007".
Spin (p.108) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "Hushed, delicate ballads like 'Cristobal' and 'So Long Old Bean' sound like nobody else..."
Entertainment Weekly (p.106) - "[A] sprawling collection of psych-rock gems, sweet Spanish ditties, and ambitious sonic experiments." -- Grade: B+
Q (p.104) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "'So Long Old Bean' quivers like prime English psychedelia and Freely is a luminous pastoral ballad..."
Uncut (p.80) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "SMOKEY...introduces a more complex Banhart....'Freely' is as good a song as he's ever written, actually -- a musically mature relative of 'Heard Somebody Say' from CRIPPLE CROW."
Alternative Press (p.174) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "'Saved' is full-on gospel; 'Lover' sounds like disco as John Lennon would have understood it; and 'Tonada Yanomamonista' rocks like the Doors as produced by Ennio Morricone."
Magnet (p.91) - "Banhart still spins the type of delicate, fragile folk that captivated us in the first place, though now he's more likely to layer psychedelic atmospherics or link it to Tropicalia."
No Depression (p.95) - "[I]t comes across as a thoroughly envisioned and executed work, maybe even a classic."