Dare to go darker, searching for the lost soul of America.

Steve Bonham and The Long Road have gone back to the source to make music born of rediscovery, reinvention and reimagining. The outcome? A year-long mission exploring the moonshine, myth and madness of America through a collection of 15 songs  progressively released as 4 EPs to the end of October 2020. American Wilderness was the first release: consisting of the title track, Wrapped Up in You and Interstate 25

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Steve writes about the ballad 'American Wilderness'

I travelled around the southern states  trekking and road tripping, I came across the strange story of Paula Angel – said to be the first woman to be hung in New Mexico. She had been a lover of a soldier out at Fort Union, one Miquel Martin. Turns out he had a wife and five children, so when she discovered this, she stabbed him to death. Quickly arrested she was tried in front of Judge Benedict a heavy drinking lawman and friend of Abraham Lincoln. It’s on odd story. As a crime of passion, she shouldn’t have been arraigned on first degree murder where a guilty verdict must mean a death sentence. And then, when she was found guilty, Benedict set the date for her appeal after her execution day! On top of it all, the gaoler, who seems to have hated her, botched the hanging so she was hung twice.

Listen to the first EP on Spotify 

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How the songs were born...

​The songs from the project have all been written by Steve Bonham, Steve and Kev, and Steve and Chris. Their starting point is not first the songs of others but the deep well of individual experience.  They were inspired by the people, the landscape, the stories and the spirit of the Southern States of the USA. They were inspired by the things that moved those who made this great music in the first place. Steve trekked through the brooding old testament forests and mountains of Appalachia in Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. He took road trips from Ashville to Nashville and New Orleans and then, trekking and driving, circumnavigated New Mexico. Kev set off in a classic old sedan to visit the hometowns and heroes of his youth spending six weeks on the road through Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana.
 
These songs taste gritty and real, the words rattling across the beat like a typewriter, raging against steel bars, painting images of hope and hurt, the dustbowl, downtown heartaches and impossible dreams….

Wrapped Up In You and Interstate 25
Wrapped Up in You, was a hit on independent radio globally and number 1 on UKCountry Radio. Interstate 25 was written by Steve after visiting a ghost town at twilight in Northern New Mexico and finding the last resident was still there. One Ben C De Bacca who told him what  happened to the place.

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Such deeds and songs are rambling on
in the American wilderness
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