The Music
Steve Bonham has written some songs about his adventure walking from the top of the High Atlas Mountains to the Sahara Desert. One of them is specifically about Black, the Spirit Dog, who walked with them.
The Long Road took to the studio in January 2024. We love to record at the famous Woodworm Studios down in Oxfordshire. It's just a fabulous place to make music, engineered by the brilliant Stuart Jones.
The EP was released by Artisan Creative in summer 2024. Find out more at: arcr.uk/stumblingEP.
Time in the studio
Steve, Chris, Kev and Stuart spent a glorious five days in January 2024 beavering away in the studio, laying down the tracks for this project, mixing them and preparing them for release.
Over 2024, we released the music on streaming platforms and music videos on YouTube. If you're used to The Long Road's stuff, you'll definitely enjoy it, but you might also like to hear the different corners we've pushed our music to with this stuff. Exciting times!
Check out a bunch of pictures from our time in the studio below.
I Could Write A Book
A tender remembrance of Black, the Spirit Dog himself. Steve reflects on their unlikely bond across the Atlas Mountains - the dog who kept watch through howling nights, whose quiet wisdom left a mark too deep for words. Almost.
Lyrics
Along with you, I walked it just the same
Far horizon from a different shore
Under the sun and a diamond sky
Heaven could wait where the river runs
And the eagle flies
You stayed with me, my brown-eyed friend
Along the trail I thought would never end
Kept a watch as the evening falls
You stood guard where the darkness creeps
The wild dogs howl, the wind cuts through
And all spirits sleep
CHORUS
So I'll remember you, so much wisdom in your look
And I'll remember you, so much there I could write a book
Guess you weren't the city kind
Dusty way was always on your mind
I can see your face when I'm feeling low
In the hard days of summer, in the shadows of the sun
The call of the air, the edge of the deep
Before the day's begun
May good fortune greet you every morn
May you find shelter from the comin' of the storm
Kind hands and a place to sleep
Beneath the light of a high and yellow moon
Safe home again on a caravan
Across a sea of dunes
Musician credits
Steve Bonham: lead vocals, guitar, mandolin.
Christopher Lydon: piano, backing vocals.
Kev Moore: guitar, bass, drums, percussion, backing vocals.
The Voice Inside
The one written for younger listeners. An upbeat, direct encouragement to trust yourself, ignore the doubters, and keep moving - built around the simple idea that the most important guide you'll ever have is already with you.
Lyrics
Don't let someone else tell you who you are.
When you've fallen over, get back on your feet.
Don't park your car in the dead end of a street.
CHORUS
Listen to the voice inside,
Stand up good and strong.
Listen to the voice inside,
It knows when things feel wrong.
Listen to the voice inside,
Let it be your guide.
When the world gets heavy,
Hear the voice inside.
There's always someone there who says you can't do that.
Things like this are not for you, they leave you feeling flat.
Remember there's a magic road that leads right by your door.
There's a staircase to the stars that will tell you what you're for.
CHORUS
If you look for diamonds, don't worry if you fail.
The secret's in the looking, in the telling of the tale.
Don't be scared of what you find when you work it out,
Every step you take is what it's all about.
CHORUS
Musician credits
Steve Bonham: lead vocals, guitar, whistling.
Christopher Lydon: piano.
Kev Moore: percussion.
Stumbling Over Eden
The epic of the three. A vivid travelogue of the trek itself - crossing the broken plains, the kasbahs, the salt-stream diamonds, the cobra and the lizard, the Imazighen landscape - the sense of someone who went looking for something and found more than they bargained for.
Lyrics
To cross this wild and lonesome land
And find my way to the singing of the sands
To taste the cool water of the deep, dark well
Let the spirit of the fire watch over me
'Til somewhere out here in the wilderness
I would find the place I was meant to be
So I crossed this great and broken plain
The savage peaks and the valleys bare
Saw strange shapes in the tumbling stone
The smallest pasture with some barley sown
Seen the kasbah and the threshing place
Warlords and warriors and the ship of fools
Turquoise lizard and a cobra snake
A turtle seek the darkness of a pool
CHORUS
I'm stumbling over Eden, in the land of the Imazighen
Under the skies of Africa, I can find my way again
When I'm stumbling over Eden, way down from old Tangiers
Under the skies of Africa, falling through the years
Among tall trees, I stole a rest
Where the night jar called, I laid my burden down
Weightless in the flickering, dappling glow
I stretched my arms and time moved slow
The diamonds in the streams were salt it seems
The gold was the fruit upon the vine
The sword of the king is no fabulous thing
When all these treasures wait in line
CHORUS
I'm stumbling over Eden, in the land of the Imazighen
Under the skies of Africa, I can find my way again
When I'm stumbling over Eden, way down from old Tangiers
Under the skies of Africa, falling through the years
When I'm stumbling over Eden, in the land of the Imazighen
Under the skies of Africa, falling through the years
Falling through the years…
Musician credits
Steve Bonham: lead vocals, guitar, mandolin.
Christopher Lydon: piano, elec piano, backing vocals.
Kev Moore: bass, drums, percussion, backing vocals.
Some photos from The Long Road's sessions in the studio recording the music
