Surrender Hill - River Of Tears (2024)

This set is the duo’s 7th & with it, they get a little grittier with an indelible mix of rock & soul with a spray of classic country & western dust. It’s watered with tried & true balladry & love songs. Husband & wife team Robin Dean Salmon (acoustic & electric guitar/B3/Dobro/vocals) & Afton Seekins Salmon (percussion/vocals) from Georgia carefully shape their country turf by keeping their music out of the formalist side of the menu & more in the entrees.

While country singers often keep the angst, heartbreak & “he did me wrong” humor in a strong orderly & cultured manner this duo having come from R&R (Robin was with the wonderful See No Evil & their song 1989 “Don’t Cry” still scrapes my memory from time to time — a personal favorite & desert island song) will now take a broader brush to their new music.

Edgier, darker, soulful & shuffled together to make their 16 intrinsic tunes flow from River of Tears produced by Robin with Grammy Award-winning engineer Joe Smith. This well-drafted & recorded set has a country tinge with the rough edges only slightly polished. Afton has a strong vocal with clarity & excellent accentuation & articulation. Robin shines on the rockier “Rent Is Due,” & the follow-up Afton’s “Get Out of Your Own Way” runs like a cool sparkling stream. Two masterful tunes.

Despite his excellent rock voice Robin Salmon developed an ideal country projection & with Afton’s voice, they coupled quite complimentary alone or together vocally. They trade off a magnetism shared with the duo Golden-Carrillo who had a similar magical style captured on their LP (“Fire In Newtown”). The duos don’t sound alike but their vocal skills are captivating.

It happened again with the English duo Clive Gregson & Christine Collister (“Blessing In Disguise”). When voices like this are provoked by the music the tune is no longer a song, it becomes something strangely more & “Cry Baby,” is one such performance.

The duo usually wrote together but it was noted they wrote many of this CD individually. Due to space constrictions, I don’t often go into detail about what each song’s about but all of the tunes on this set have an enduring pervasive quality.

Highlights – River of Tears,” “Rent Is Due,” Get Out of Your Own Way,” “In Our Time,” “Great Divide,” Unconditional Life,” “That Kind of Living,” “Cry Baby,” “Pining Over You,” “Black Birds Are Black,” “End of the Line,” “You Can Always Call” & “Angel, the Devil & Me.”