Devendra Banhart

Rejoicing in the Hands

With songwriting and guitar-playing that have progressed since Oh Me Oh My The Way The Day Goes By The Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs Of The Christmas Spirit, and determined not to be ghettoized as a low-fi crank, Devendra Banhart and Michael Gira agreed it was best to move on to professional recording studios. Lynn Bridges, who works with Jimmy Johnson (of Mussel Shoals fame), invited them to his old, southern house with tall ceilings and wood floors on the Alabama / Georgia border, where they recorded 32 songs (culled from something like 57 initial submissions), using the best possible vintage gear. Banhart sat on a stool in that living room for ten days, twelve hours per, playing constantly, sometimes with a chorus of cicadas when they recorded at night with open windows. Overdubs were later added back in NYC.

The title tune-- a duet with the legendary '60s English folk gamin (one of Banhart idols) Vashti Bunyan-- is an obvious highlight, but Banhart's uncanny ability to transport the listener through words, voice, and pretty amazing finger-picked acoustic guitar is where the album's magic lies.

Gira was immediately struck by Banhart's home recordings (which he eventually released on Young God), especially his voice, "a quivering high-tension wire [that] sounded like it could have been recorded 70 years ago-- these songs could have been sitting in someone's attic, left there since the 1930s." Following Oh Me Oh My's tidal wave of acclaim, three or four US tours, tours in Europe, and a feature on NPR, Banhart remains the most genuine, least cynical and calculated artist Gira has ever known, one of the most innately talented, magical performers he ever heard. Whether the songs are pained, twisted, whimsical, or even sometimes weirdly silly, aside from being fantastically musical and expertly played, they are also utterly sincere, and devoid of postmodern irony. He's the real thing.

Other Albums by This Artist Devendra Banhart Oh Me Oh My...The Way The Days Go By... Devendra Banhart What Will We Be Devendra Banhart Cripple Crow