American Interior: Gruff Rhys, London Review Bookshop

Musician Gruff Rhys is a distant descendant of Welsh explorer John Evans. Evans was renowned in the late 18th century for his long and treacherous journeys in search of the Madogwys, a Native American tribe who, the legend says, spoke in Welsh. Though this tribe proved too elusive to track down, it nonetheless inspired poems by Robert Sothey and Paul Muldoon and the journey helped to map unchartered American territory. Drawing partly on the plight of his fascinating ancestor and partly on the rich myth of the Madogwys, Rhys decided to re-trace Evans's footsteps and forge his own journey.

The resultant American Interior project is Gruff Rhys’s account of his trek across America. It is fascinating fusion of music, myth, history and fantasy, spanning media as an album, app, film and book. 

Rhys will be in conversation with writer Iain Sinclair , whose own literary pilgrimage, American Smoke (due to be published in July), retraced the routes of Beat Poets and Counter Culture writers such as Kerouac and Burroughs . Expect a vibrant insight into these two extraordinary adventures across America and through history.