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  Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder CanyonBy Daniel JohnsonOctober 26, 2007 "Rota, rota," Devendra Banhart sings by way of introduction on "Cristobal," the first of 16 tracks on Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon, but it doesn't matter if you speak one or ten languages since his message can be found between the words. As the native Californian, who spent much of his youth in Venezuela, switches freely between Spanish and gibberish throughout Smokey's 72-minute genre juggling act, choice of tongue is beside the point. You could call it tri-lingual, but trans-lingual might be more accurate. For all the style swapping, the folk prankster is in the business of making lullabies, and not the bedside kind. His curly-cooed deliveries and playful abstractions are meant to give our lower brain the day off and lull us into the rarified space of Banhart's wonderland. And in some ways, that silly brilliance and endless well of wordplay make him as much a contemporary of more inspired rappers like Lil' Wayne and MF Doom as the freak folk lot for which he has become a father figure. Banhart's mane has grown to epic, unkempt lengths of late. But while it should be left to grow to the floor, his records could use a trim. Anything over an hour is pushing with stuff this sprawling. Still, in a way even the overly-long running time serves Banhart's hippie logic: everything is better left untamed.
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