Review – Steve Bonham and the Long Road ‘American Wilderness Odyssey’
New Album Out Now
American Wilderness Odyssey is available from https://www.thelongroadband.net/awo.html
The American Wilderness Odyssey is an extraordinary project from Steve Bonham and the Long Road which features fifteen songs released over a fifteen month period through a series of EP’s culminating in the release of the album and a companion book. The songs from the project have all been written by Steve Bonham, Chris Lydon and Kev Moore, 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. 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.
The album opens with the ‘Ballad of Duane and Billy Marie’ a gentle song with intricate piano playing interweaved with guitar and harmonies reminiscent of Crosby, Stills & Nash, like most of the songs on this album the inspiration for this comes from a chance encounter or observation by Steve Bonham which is then expanded into a story. The more up tempo ‘Wrapped Up in You’ has a great rhythm and slick guitar playing and a catchy chorus and was a hit on independent radio globally and number 1 on UK Country Radio. ‘American Wilderness’ is an eight minute song which tells the strange story of Paula Angel, said to be the first woman to be hung in New Mexico. ‘Do You’ is a beautiful gentle song described by the band as a 'secular prayer' wishing someone an authentic and spiritual life despite all the madness that precedes. ‘Midnight Radio’ is cracking little song where all the component parts of The Long Road come to together with great lyrics, a gentle keyboard backing and excellent percussion.
The final track of the album ‘Western Requim’ is a fantastic end to this epic project conjuring images of the wide expanse of the American landscape with it’s almost cinematic soundscape with Hammond organ, piano, guitar & percussion. In a time when how we listen to music is changing almost on a daily basis The Long Road have come up with a creative and inventive solution by incorporating an album, book and videos making it accessible to everyone, big congratulations to all involved.
Graham Steel