Reviews

Surrender Hill
Album: Wild Country
Label: Betty Blue
Tracks: 15
Website: https://www.surrenderhill.com

Comprising South Africa born Robin Dean Salmon (and Alaskan wife Afton Seekings Salmon, the Georgia-based Surrender Hill (the name from the site in the Free State of South Africa where in 1900 the Boers surrendered to British troops during the Anglo-Boer War) are one of my favourite Americana duos, delivering both honky tonk, rousing folk rock and soul and blues-tinged country. With never less than a dozen songs and frequently many more, their albums are always value for money in terms of both quantity and content.

And that's certainly true of their autobiographically-focused seventh which, joined by guitarists Mathew Von Doren and Mike Waldron, mandolin, banjo and fiddle player Dennis Parker, Eric Fritsch on bass and keys, drummer Matt Crouse and fiddler Jim Van Cleve kicks off with the swaggering Celtic-infused title track's account of how they met, their different backgrounds and ages ("Me a boy out of the south/She was born to the northern lights") coming together to ride "life's rocky river/Til we landed on our feet… Turns out I was wishing her and she was wishing me/And we found each other in the heart of the wild country").

Afton on lead, 'Beyond The Break' takes the pace down a notch with a slow-walking country soul number about how what doesn't kill you makes you stronger ("with every crack and bruise, there comes a change"), learning to look at what you have, "breathe in the light of day" and, explaining the title's surfer imagery about pushing past the hurt and "find yourself a wave/and ride on it to a new day/Let it all wash over/And carry you away, you'll find love/Beyond the break".

Adopting a Tom Petty feel, 'Straight Into The Light' is another about find clarity and togetherness and, here, parenthood ("Waking to the dawn, your laughter fills the air/Springtime in the room, gold streaks in your hair/Every day is dawning with color in the sky/Our little boy is calling with you in his eyes"). Similar sentiments inform the fiddle and mandolin swaying Van Morrison-shaded chorus-friendly 'The Otherside' ("Our hearts have come together like bridge across the river/Like a photograph coming into view/The sun was sinking lower, my world was burning slower/When I turned a corner and fell in step with you"), the album's only duet with Ray Tanner on flugelhorn.

Reverb guitar and keys set the mood for 'Love Won't Come Running' summed up in the lines "Out of the darkens into the light/Love will guide you through wrong and the right/If you should stumble, she'll catch your fall/Love is the answer so you make the call".

Nudging six strummed minutes, gradually building musical muscle the faith-underpinned 'Witness', Robin on lead and written for their son Wren, extends the wedding ceremony image ("A witness to the ring that you hold in your hand/When you take a knee and you promise") to testaments to how a life is lived ("Everybody has a witness that will be there at the fading of the light/One that will echo in your conscience wrong and right/It'll stand beside your decisions, know that shadow as your friend/It'll help you find your balance on a razors edge").

Afton back in the country saddle, the mandolin-tinkled 'Not Alone' also speaks to faith ("I know there's a heaven, I know there's a hell/Where it is I'm going, I know it well/There's a rhyme and there's a reason/For each and every stone/It's why I get the feeling I'm not alone") offering her own autobiographical input ("I have worn the battle scars/I've even dealt a broken heart/But time will heal a lesson learned/What you give is what you earn").

Again autobiographical (I've been thrown out of a foreign land/Been the singer in a punk rock band"), with steady walking rhythm, guitar reverb and piercing solo, the title of the salvational finding your rock 'Dancing With The Woman I Love' tells its own story as does Afton's more fluttering acoustic 'The Feeling Of You' ("We put it all on the table/I bet yours, you called mine/Unpacked all the baggage/And pushed it aside/Made a toast to our fears/And we lost track of time/Then I followed you home/We made love by the fire"). Returning to Robin with Afton harmonising, the uptempo shuffling 'Girl In Abilene', written in 2007, was inspired by a friend's Facebook post and is about a woman dreaming about a different life. ("There is a girl in Abilene waiting on a man/Who will come along and take her by the hand/A man, gentle and kind, faithful and strong/Who will stand by her no matter where she stands") but is nevertheless rooted in their own story too.

Stepping away from themselves, named for the documentary and the memorial from which it took its title, the atmospheric, keys-based five-minute plus 'River Of Angels' pays tribute to the 100 and more victims of the July 2025 Kerrville Texas flash flood ("Where young lives were lost with their innocence …Hearts were shattered and faith was tested/News of the fallen left us breathless") when the Guadalupe River burst its banks, offering up the heartfelt prayer "Mother Mary guide these souls home/And may God keep Texas strong".

It's back to what initially seems a home thoughts on the road romance ("Are you up on your hill looking out at the sea/In the snow capped mountains looking back at me") with the urgent, drums-driven rock and twang of 'Are Thinking Of Me' before it unfolds as a touching song about Afton's late grandfather ("Up where you are, where you woke up today/Are you safe in the arms that carried you away/Free from it all, the world's sorrow and pain").

Another slow tempo twanger, 'Love For The Work' is Afton's honky tonk waltzer about putting things behind her ("I packed up that old devil's suitcase/With all of my fear and regret/And I drove it on out to the desert/Said a prayer and left it for dead") and following her musical dream "Cuz if we're not trying, there's no chance of flying/I'd rather jump off the earth/So I carry love for the work".

By way of a thematic shift, the penultimate mandolin-flecked strider 'They All Stood Up For Love' is a stinging commentary on the hypocrisy and division that's riven America, especially in the wake of Trump's presidency (You say that love surrounds you/You're quick to lend a hand/That's why it feel so reckless/When you condemn your fellow man…") as it soars on its anthemic chorus - "When I think about Jesus and what the prophets say/I wonder what our time on earth will mean on judgment day/I don't have all the answers from the good Lord up above/But I know for certain, they all stood up for love" - as Robin urges "stand before the fire friend/With a bucket in your hand/Help save what's left of our human soul/And set aside the brand".

Inspired by Robin's father and his belief that you be close to God without a church, it ends with the harmonica-laced cowboy campfire trotter "Cowboy's Last Ride'. A last redemption ode to the simple life that the open range offers ("Nothing more, nothing less, I guess, there is nothing better than this/To ride in the country that I've known/Nothing more, nothing less, I guess, there is nothing better than this/No church made of stone could ever lead me home". Go Wild.

Mike Davies

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