Devendra Banhart review

To call singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart an eccentric would be an extreme understatement. At the mere age of 25, Banhart, who sports long flowing black hair, a thick beard, and often appears with a Hindu bindi on his forehead, has been described as a “hobo/minstrel” who strives to express a hippie mentality of love, peace, and unity through soft spoken words and melodies.
Having that said, it’s nearly impossible to clump Banhart into a modern genre, and he probably doesn’t belong in one. Banhart, whose music is often dubbed psych folk, Naturalismo, New Weird America, or freak-folk, is the shining star of a current folk revival movement, involving similar popular “indie” artists such as Animal Collective, Iron & Wine, and Joanna Newsom. Many liken his jarring, yet intoxicating voice and story-telling approach to lyricism to those of Bob Dylan, but Banhart has said that his inspiration comes from his parents- “older hippies, people into Eastern philosophies and New Age.”
Born in Houston, Texas in 1981, Banhart was named by an Indian mystic whom his parents followed (it translates to “king of gods” in Hindi). After his parents divorced, Banhart moved to Venezuela with his mother and spent his childhood in a violent area he describes as “insane.” When Banhart’s mother remarried, they moved to California, and he attended San Francisco Art Institute on a scholarship. Though he had been writing songs since age 12, Banhart came to a realization that he could write anything while arguing about a Rolling Stones song with his girlfriend, and shortly thereafter became a “wandering minstrel,” playing at any venue that would take him. After two years of art school, Banhart dropped out in 2000, moved to Paris, moved back to California, and was ultimately discovered by a friend of Michael Gira, the owner of Young God Records, while playing a show in L.A. “We'd never heard anything quite like him, ever,” says Gira. “His voice - a quivering high-tension wire, sounded like it could have been recorded 70 years ago.”
Banhart’s first four albums were released on Young God Records in 2003 and 2004, and his latest album, “Cripple Crow” was released on XL Recordings in 2005. One of the greatest things about Banhart’s songs is that they constantly vary in sound and lyrical subject matter without losing their luster. Though Banhart’s signature sound comprises of tinny words and acoustic guitar, the songs from his earlier albums, “Nino Rojo” and “Rejoicing in the Hands,” toy with horns, violin, and backup singers. His lyrics, which sometimes wander in and out of Spanish, often unfold like folktales, ripe with an abundance of natural imagery of things like sparrows, spiders, crabs, squid, water, islands, dogs, insects, and of course, the sun. In “We All Know” he sings, “We all know, that the wind blows, and the moon glows, and our lungs grow, we belong to the floating hand, that's made by some animals.”
“Cripple Crow,” though it seems more experimental and involved, is a slight departure from his earlier work-- a get-up-and-dance kind of departure, that is. The songs seem jazzier, more upbeat, and percussion orientated. As far as lyrics are concerned, a lot of the songs focus more heavily on the womb and children. His song “Long Haired Child” touts, “I said to all my friends when I have kids, I’m going to want the child to be a long haired child” and “Chinese Children” begins, “if I lived in China I’d have some Chinese children.” Additionally, Banhart dips his toes into political territory on this album, singing “I heard somebody say the war ended today” and “I need you to please explain the war.”
Whether he’s singing about eating breakfast, or a lazy butterfly, Banhart never disappoints. His sound is matchless- not to mention, completely refreshing in a world full of has-beens and wannabes. Banhart undoubtedly succeeds in expressing love, peace, and unity, for his songs will not only make you sing and dance, but they will make you smile-- or, more appropriately, rejoice.