AN AMERICAN actor is giving a Flintshire town international prominence by musically celebrating it.

Hollywood star Steve Martin has played the banjo for a track about the famous and historic Mold Gold Cape.

Teaming up with fellow Texan, singer-songwriter Edie Brickell, the song King of Boys features on the new album Love Has Come For You.

The opening lyric to the song is ‘On a hill in Mold, North Wales’, with several other references to Mold made in the remainder of the track.

Steve talked through the unlikely choice of Mold for the setting for the song when appearing with Edie on BBC Radio 2’s The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe.

After discussing how the songs conveyed stories from their lives, Steve was quizzed about the surprising choice of Mold.

Mark asked: “One of the stories which is not Texas related is on the song King of Boys which we’re going to hear which relates to Mold in North Wales and the discovery of the famous golden cape that is one of the History of the World in 100 Objects and in the British Museum.

“Did you have any awareness of the Mold Gold Cape?”

Steve said he did not and spoke of how he had wanted to challenge Edie to see what she was capable of coming up with.

“In my own small way when we got to our ninth song I was thinking ‘gee she’s so able to respond with anything I throw at her’.

“So I just thought I’m going to go musically kind of far out for the banjo…. For the banjo I sort of reached a little bit. I think I’ll see what she can do with this.

“She happened to be reading a book at the time [A History of the World in 100 Objects]. She came across the story and she actually wrote [to] the author because I think she used one of his lines and asked permission and used that line.

“I thought it was a haunting tale.”

Steve, 67, who has starred in films including Father of the Bride, has found fame in several genres.

They include as an actor, comedian, musician, author, playwright, and producer.
Edie, 47, is the wife of famous American musician Paul Simon.

l The Mold Cape is a solid sheet-gold object.

It is thought to date from about 1900 to 1600 BC in the European Bronze Age.
The cape was found at Mold in 1833, leading to it being known as the Mold Gold Cape.