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Photograph by Pierre Humbert
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Two summers ago, Welsh musician Gruff Rhys (formerly of Super Furry Animals) paid a visit to St. Louis. Yes, he played a show—he even stopped by KDHX for an in-studio performance. But his mission was larger. He was in the middle of an "investigative tour," researching his ancestor John Evans, a Snowdonian who had come to America in 1792, searching for the Mandans, a tribe of "Welsh Indians." He followed Evans' trail from Baltimore to New Orleans, filming and playing music all along the way. As we noted here on Look-Listen in 2012:
In 1792, the age of 22, [Evans] arrived in Baltimore with the mission of locating the Mandans, a tribe rumored to be Welsh speakers, descendants of a party that sailed with Prince Madog ab Owain Gwynedd in 1170. Evans headed west on foot with a little more than a dollar in his pocket. After wandering through the wilderness, wrestling with river monsters and recovering from a bad bout with malaria, he finally arrived in Spanish-controlled St. Louis in the spring of 1793, whereupon he was promptly thrown in jail for suspicion of being a spy. He then defected to Spain and was given a commission to find the headwaters of the Missouri River. During his travels, he located the Mandans and spent a winter with them, then returned to St. Louis in 1797. He died at the age of 29 in New Orleans, broke and delirious.
We chatted with Rhys prior to his arrival in town; you can read more of his thoughts about American Interior (now a film, app, book and record) right here. Here's a video for the title track from American Interior, which features some nice footage of St. Louis, saturated with color and spangled with cartoon stars:
And here's a nice film trailer, with a longish bit featuring Rhys in the KDHX studios, talking to Jeff Hess:
And you can stream the record in its entirety on Gruff Rhys' YouTube channel, here.
