Reviews
Artist:Surrender Hill Album: A Whole Lot Of Freedom
Label: Betty Blue
Tracks: 18
Website: http://www.surrenderhill.com
Their fourth album since Robin Dean Salmon and Afton Seekins became a duo, if nothing else the hefty track listings certainly provides value for money. Fortunately quantity isn't at the expense of quality on a set of songs exploring notions of freedom and togetherness.
The reflective title cut kicks it off in upbeat style with its mention of wild horses, trucks, whisky, guitars and outlaw country songs in upstanding country tradition, sliding into the rolling rhythm of the high lonesome 'Turn This Train Around' with its travelling musicians facing the odds narrative together and from there there the slower fiddle coloured 'Winter's End' on which Afron sings lead.
Cruising through, further highlights emerge with the aching' Carry On (more trucks and outlaw songs), Afton's Emmylou-styled 'Broken Down Car', the slow waltz 'Beautiful Wren', 'Lucky Star' with its son's memories of his father's guidance, the duet 'Will You Pass Me By' and the anthemic six-minute plus 'Winter In America'.
I also have to confess to being rather taken with the drum thump and mandolin strum of the musician's odyssey that is 'Badge Of A Punk Rock Band' but the stand out has to be the terrific narrative seven-minute closer 'The Ballad of Rebel Wingfield', the true story of a friend's brother who got into the rush of drug running but "burned through all the aces in my deck" before being sold out to the DEA, doing time, trying to settle down and, hassled by a small town rookie lawman busting him on a DUI, eventually committing suicide as an act of defiance. Well worth seeking out.
Mike Davies
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