“...fabulous, I loved the songs, you brought a forgotten America to life.”
Ideal for: arts venues, festivals, community venues
Gone to Look for America is a high-energy, music-fuelled plunge into the America of legend — and the America that fell off the map.
Driven by great original songs, sharp humour and a vivid audio-visual backdrop, the show chases the lost America of moonshine whisky, flickering neon motels, ghost towns, desert highways and deep Appalachian forests. Somewhere in the static, Elvis Presley still sings.
By turns raucous, moving and gloriously entertaining, Gone to Look for America delivers big laughs, great songs and unforgettable stories — then quietly sneaks in a few dangerous questions about freedom, reinvention and the American Dream.
Tickets on sale
Saturday 9 May 2026 - 3.45pm
BRIGHTON FRINGE - Gone To Look For America
📍Rotunda Theatre: Squeak, Regency Square, Brighton BN1 2FG venue map link
🎟️brightonfringe.org
🎟️rotundatheatre.com
Sunday 10 May 2026 - 3.45pm
BRIGHTON FRINGE - Gone To Look For America
📍Rotunda Theatre: Squeak, Regency Square, Brighton BN1 2FG venue map link
🎟️brightonfringe.org
🎟️rotundatheatre.com
What are audiences saying?
Rural Touring 2022
Rural Touring 2022
Poole, Lighthouse 2022
Salford Arts Theatre, 2021
Nottingham, Bodega 2021
Ashby Venture Theatre, 2021
Harrison, London, 2021
Poole, Lighthouse 2022
Poole, Lighthouse 2022
Ashby Venture Theatre, 2021
Ashby Venture Theatre, 2021
"We were lucky to host Artisan Creative’s Gone To Look For America at Printer’s Playhouse and were treated to a truly absorbing evening which transported us all to an America brought to life with words and songs. Three true musicians in our theatre and a show full of insights and reminiscences which deserves to be seen and heard across the land!"
Chris Berry, director Printers Playhouse, Eastbourne
"Gone To Look For America performed at
Salford Arts Theatre in September
and what a joy it was!
The warmth and easy-going storytelling, coupled with the fabulous guitars and keyboard really carried me along on the journey. It was like travelling with old friends.
Our audience loved spending time
‘On the road’ with the boys."
Roni Ellis, artistic director Salford Arts Theatre
Available as
one-hour duo show
two-hour duo show (with interval)
two-hour trio show (with interval)
Please note: this show used to tour as “American Wilderness Odyssey”.
Suitable for
arts venues and festivals
studio theatres (trio show suitable for mid-scale theatres)
sessions at arts, books and literature festivals
community venues
Features of Gone To Look For America
Original songs as wide and free as the canvas of the American Wilderness itself
Unique stories based on real experiences
Songs and tales to make you laugh, be inspired and to wonder
A celebration of the great gumbo of humanity of the southern USA
A new way of seeing a place that is already written into our imaginations
A selection of our partners, venues and supporters:
Associated books
![Gone to Look for America - an American Wilderness Odyssey [paperback] (inc. UK P&P)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/640f8eded7598d6facb7e7f3/b47fa063-07a4-40dc-9b14-00160972f117/Book+GTLFA.jpg)
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 Beautiful Broken Dream [paperback] (inc. UK P&P)](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/640f8eded7598d6facb7e7f3/1708432812763-RHN5FCSLHFN9YKZDGXT5/Book+BBD.jpg)
These days, it is easy to forget the compelling draw that the myth of America has had to peoples of the world – a myth that has shaped our cultures; our history and indeed, our dreams.
In his own idiosyncratic style, Steve Bonham throws himself into the dust, the dirt, the moonshine and the madness of what really makes America great.
A Beautiful Broken Dream is a ‘trail book’ of a journey mostly on foot through the great forests of the southern states of the US and then a trip along music road, from Ashville to Nashville and New Orleans Endeavouring to avoid irritable bears, rattlesnakes, agitated natives, over-exuberant creeks, and a whole variety of other challenges, this is a journey into the heart of Appalachia and the Southern States and the music that flows from it. What emerges is a wry, funny, provocative and highly personal view of this land and the ‘truth’ it holds for all of us.
A unique memento of a unique project.
A guide to the 15 songs from American Wilderness Odyssey by Steve Bonham and The Long Road - and the stories that lie behind the songs.
In search of the moonshine, myth and madness of the Southern USA.
Music that is timeless and of the moment; deeply personal and yet universal.
Your copy of the companion includes download code for FREE 15-song digital album - and free e-book included!
Find out more about the whole project: https://www.thelongroadband.net/awo
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We explored what we came to call the moonshine, the myth and the madness of it all. Moonshine? Taking a few simple ingredients and conjure something raw and potent. Myth? Immersing ourselves in the legend of America that has so beguiled the world. And the Madness? Discovering the America that lies within a monster and an angel, and is a place of shape-shifters, where lawmen become outlaws and outlaws turn to the light.
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. . 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….