Photo by Emanuela Vh. Bonetti
Devendra Banhart – internationally renowned musician and considered among the pioneers of “freak folk” and “New Weird America” – has returned to Italy on the occasion of his Summer Tour 2026 only at the Home of Jazz Of Rome Tuesday 30 June 2026 for the Rome Summer Fest.
Devendra Banhart was born in Houston, Texas and lives in Los Angeles. Throughout his career he has collaborated with artists such as Vashti Bunyan, Yoko Ono, Os Mutantes, Swans, ANOHNI, Caetano Veloso and Beck. Banhart emerged in 2002 with his first collection on CD Oh Me Oh My…The Way the Day Goes By the Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs of the Christmas Spirit. After graduation he thought about pursuing a career in the visual arts and enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute, but soon dropped out to devote himself to music. Yet he has successfully maintained a parallel career as a visual artist: his distinctive drawings, painstakingly drawn in ink and often enigmatic, have been exhibited in galleries around the world, including Art Basel in Miami, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, as well as the Nicodim Gallery. San Francisco has had an indelible influence on Banhart: his eccentric and flamboyant style, which also fascinated the fashion world, was partly inspired by the culture of subversive cross-dressing of the legendary performance troupe The Cockettes. Banhart he embraced a surprisingly wide range of musical ideas, from folk to blues to avant-garde. Among his influences is Arthur Russell, an eclectic artist who is difficult to classify, and he helped bring forgotten figures such as Vashti Bunyan, whose psychedelic folk, back into the limelight.
Click here to see photos of Devendra Banhart in Rome or browse the gallery below
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
