Garth Cartwright has

Garth Cartwright has "tried to take the pulse of America" in his new book on music and culture. Photo / Supplied

It seems appropriate to meet Garth Cartwright in a pub near Tin Pan Alley, London's musical instrument district where aspiring rockers have long ventured to buy guitars or drums.

Just as bands like the Rolling Stones and the Kinks were inspired by American blues music in the 1960s, the 45-year-old New Zealand journalist has been obsessed with all things American since he was a child growing up in Mt Roskill in the 1980s.

Now, after two decades of travelling the globe, his passion has manifested itself in his second book More Miles than Music, which documents an eventful journey through America's musical heartland.

"I love New Zealand, but if you're interested in music, books and film you end up absorbing so much of what the rest of the world has done," he says.

"Americans can famously only watch American movies and television, read American books and listen to American records if they want to, they don't have to go outside of all of that. But New Zealanders don't have that chance.

Even the most diehard follower of Maori culture is going to have to look elsewhere."

Cartwright was first introduced to American movies at an impressionable age. "My father loved westerns and he took me to see Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid when I was about 9," he recalls. "I remember coming out of the Civic thinking, 'There are no horses or cowboys here.' I also heard Bo Diddley, as those old rock'n'rollers used to come to New Zealand a lot back then on the touring circuit. I was just amazed by his name, his sound and his square guitar.

I absorbed all that early on, and as a teenager I knew more about Tennessee than Taranaki."

He first visited his beloved America in 1990, only to dislike what he found.

"That was the bursting of the bubble, as I realised that the United States of my dreams didn't actually exist. I went there thinking that there would be music everywhere and the girls would be really good-looking. But Bon Jovi was big back then and it wasn't the Mecca of great music I thought it would be."

Instead he settled in South London, travelling regularly around Europe. "It's a much more interesting place. I'd rather go to Spain than hang out in New York."

Ironically, it was the Roma Gypsy musicians he interviewed for his first book, Princes Amongst Men, who reignited his interest in blues music and beat poetry.