Gone to Look for America - an American Wilderness Odyssey

Moonshine myths and modern America

Gone to Look for America - an American Wilderness Odyssey [paperback] (inc. UK P&P)

£12.75

Gone to Look for America is a lyrical, offbeat exploration of the American spirit—told through stories, songs, and encounters with the wild, the weird, and the quietly profound. From Appalachian trails to desert diners, songwriter Steve Bonham digs beneath the headlines to uncover a country shaped by paradox, invention, and fierce dreams. Part travelogue, part love letter, this is a field guide to the American soul—written in dust, music, memory, and fire.

A journey through the myth, music, and madness of the American dream.

Gone to Look for America is a funny, soulful wander through the overlooked corners of the USA—Appalachian trails, desert ghost towns, strange motels, and backroad bars. From moonshine to singer-songwriters, Brown bears to Billy the Kid, it’s a love letter to the forgotten places where the real stories live. From the smog-bound streets of postwar Derby to the backroads of Tennessee, the desert silence of New Mexico, and the neon flicker of forgotten motels, Gone to Look for America is an exploration of a country as wild, wounded, and wondrous as the music it inspired.

An American Wilderness Odyssey.

“I am really excited about this book, so many memories, so many stories - writing it has felt like a homecoming!”
- Steve Bonham

Explore the Live Show

A live music and storytelling show inspired by the book - part road trip, part American myth.

Steve Bonham’s lifelong fascination with America began with a black-and-white TV and a witch named Samantha. What followed was decades of wandering: by bus, by car, by campervan—and most meaningfully, on foot. This is not a single road trip, but a long, evolving quest to find the secret America behind the headlines and the hype: the land of moonshine and myth, bikers and bartenders, backwoods philosophers and beat-up dreamers.

Written by Steve Bonham

Steve Bonham is a writer, songwriter and psychologist whose work explores how people stay free, resilient and fully alive in an increasingly managed world. He has spent much of his life on the road - gathering stories from small towns, back rooms and open spaces - and weaving them into books, songs and live performances. His work blends lived experience, psychology and a quietly adventurous spirit, offering thoughtful companions for uncertain times.

Billy The Kid

In a series of vivid, lyrical essays, Steve Bonham uncovers the stories and spirit behind America’s songwriters, wilderness trails, outlaw legends, roadside prophets, and towns where the weird and the wonderful walk hand in hand. It's a portrait of a country powered by paradox—where invention springs from need, where freedom walks a fine line, and where failure is just another part of becoming.

This isn’t a guidebook. It’s a field guide to the American soul - written in dust, music, memory, and fire. What emerges is a portrait of a country still reckoning with its contradictions, and a traveller shaped - and shaken - by the journey.