Gruff Rhys – ‘American Interior’
Having explored his ancestral past in by making a film/songs about a long lost Patagonian uncle in Separado!, and used the life of John Delorean and Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli as the basis for Neon Neon albums, American Interior will come out as an album, a book, a film and an app on May 5th and focuses on the story of John Evans, who, in 1792 as a 22-year-old farmhand from Snowdonia in Wales who travelled to America to see if, there was, as believed, a Welsh-speaking Native American tribe called The Madogwys living there.
His quest took in wrestling river reptiles, hunting Bison, exploring with the Spanish and creating a map that was used in the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
In 2012, Rhys undertook a series of solo gigs along the same route that saw him accompanied by little more than acoustic guitar, PowerPoint presentation and a three-foot high felt avatar of John Evans designed by Pete Fowler. The documentary film directed by Dylan Goch was made on that tour.
American Interior track list
1. American Exterior
2. American Interior
3. 100 Unread Messages
4. The Whether (Or Not)
5. The Last Conquistador
6. Lost Tribes
7. Liberty (Is Where We’ll Be)
8. Allweddellau Allweddol
9. The Swamp
10. Iolo
11. Walk Into The Wilderness
12. Year Of The Dog
13. Tiger’s Tale
