"I read Steve's work with joy, pride and a little envy. Joy in the stories and the characters, pride in Steve for his sensitive and near spiritual accounts of life on the road and a little envy as a writer myself that I continually failed to walk the extra mile. Hats off to you Steve. Go safely. "
Anthony John Clarke - Songwriter, performer and National Treasure. ​

​On the Southern States
These conflicts seem sharper here in the south. More strongly drawn. Appalachia is an Old Testament land, I thought. God here is vengeful and dangerous, ready to drown the place or sweep all away in a fierce storm. It is a place where there is a ‘chosen people’ and others to be punished. It’s a place of exile and exodus, of murder and revenge and retribution. The inherent struggle in the paradox of human nature between good and evil; between self-reliance and self-containment; between justice and injustice is fought out here in the open.
 On Billboards
We passed a sign saying ‘cremations with confidence’. I couldn’t help wondering what part of cremation you needed to be confident about!
 On Freedom
​I think the notion of freedom is the heartbeat of America, it is the longing for it that brings this great nation together. To many Americans, it seems it is what you have left when everything else is taken away. I recalled the words of Mr. Dylan along the lines of when you’ve got nothing, you’ve nothing left to lose.

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, author, songwriter, performer and award-winning psychologist 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.

“I let the beautiful chilled waters wash away the sweat and grime of the trek, my spirits soaring in the ecstasy of being alive. If at that moment I had died, I would have died a happy man. My eyes turned to the bright blue sky, my arms lifted in salute to the magic potential we have to experience joy unbound, albeit and because it is fragmented and momentary thing.”

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