New York, NY (Top40 Charts) North Georgia-based Americana duo Surrender Hill (husband and wife team
Robin Dean Salmon and Afton Seekins) is set to release its fourth album, A Whole Lot of Freedom, on April 3, 2020. An Americana/roots-rock record filled with harmonized vocals, electric guitar, and swooning fiddle, A Whole Lot of Freedom was recorded at the couple's newly-constructed home studio in northern Georgia, with contributions from drummer Matthew Crouse (who also appeared on the duo's 2018 album, Tore Down Fences), fiddler Wyatt Espalin, and guest guitarist Jonathan Callicutt.
Surrender Hill, who is featured in an episode of the documentary series currently airing on Amazon Prime entitled "Undiscovered," has had to put their busy touring schedule on hold in light of the COVID-19 situation. The duo hopes to reschedule planned shows at a later date. To celebrate the album's release, the pair is planning a very special livestream show on Saturday, April 4th at 1:30 p.m. eastern. "We will be the only people on-site, and we will be livestreaming from the indoor pavilion at Chateau Meichtry Family Vineyards in Talking Rock, Georgia," says Salmon. "We have celebrated our last three albums with a show there. We will be performing selections from the new album and a few fan favorites." Fans can tune in via instagram.com/surrenderhillmusic and facebook.com/surrenderhill. Surrender Hill is also planning a livestream at TheBoot.com's Facebook page on April 12th at 7 p.m. eastern as part of TheBoot.com's Social Distancing Shows "Not-So-Lonely Weekend" series.
Of the 36 songs originally written for the new record, Salmon and Seekins chose 18, turning A Whole Lot of Freedom into their first double-album. The tracks that made the final cut were, by and large, both melodic and mellow, influenced heavily by the arrival of their first child, Wren. The result is an album that's both personal and universal, stocked with character-driven songs and first-person accounts.
"The songs were inspired by experiences we had on the road, stories from our youth growing up, stories told by family, and — of course — the feelings and experiences that come up when you have a child and you watch him grow and you reevaluate what's important," says Salmon, who splits the album's vocal and songwriting duties with Seekins. "Wren's arrival played a huge role in the songwriting, and there is a thread of some version of freedom in all the songs on this album."
"Got a little country in my soul [and] a little bit rock & roll," they sing on the title track, "A Whole Lot of Freedom," their voices wrapped around one another in loving harmony. This song shines new light on Surrender Hill, whose name was taken from the landmark in South Africa where the Anglo-Boer War came to a close. Like the song itself — and, indeed, the band's namesake, too — A Whole Lot of Freedom doubles down on themes of freedom and togetherness, written and performed by a duo of songwriters who've fought their own battles and suffered their own scars, only to surrender to, and find peace with, each other. This is a songwriter's album that appeals to casual onlookers and
vets of the trade, from "The Ballad of
Rebel Wingfield" — a gorgeous, nostalgic ballad about a drug dealer who lives and dies by his own set of rules, to the sparse and sentimental "Beautiful Wren," which pays tribute to the couple's son.
Like the three records that came before it - 2015's self-titled debut, 2017's Right Here Right Now, and 2018's Tore Down Fences - A Whole Lot of Freedom proves that Surrender Hill's road-dog status — the result of a busy touring schedule that often finds the band playing more than 200 international shows a year — doesn't come at the expense of the duo's sharp, articulate writing. In addition to receiving critical acclaim and airplay worldwide, their past albums have climbed the Americana and roots charts, reaching as high as #3 on the Indie World Country/Americana Chart and #6 on the
Roots Music Report.
Press praised their past releases; Strutter Magazine declared that their music incorporated "elements of Americana, Folk, Country and Singer/songwriter, sounding like a perfect cross between Bruce Springsteen, Rodney Crowell and Dolly Parton, both vocally and musically speaking." Knoxville News Sentinel admired their "effectively homey vibe," calling it "a welcoming environment built on a comfortable blend of country, rock and soul." Off-Center Reviews appreciated that "Salmon's voice has just the right amount of spit for country/folk music and Seekins adorns hers with small touches of nasal twang." And Rootstime wrote of their music, "The two songwriters present beautiful country music, heart-warming, sometimes also bittersweet, but always building soft, melancholic melodies that are easy to listen to."
Prior to forming Surrender Hill, songwriters
Robin Dean Salmon and Afton Seekins chased their own muses as solo artists. Salmon was an award-nominated punk rock
frontman who'd grown up in South Africa and
Texas listening to a cross-cultural mix of Bob Wills, the Sex Pistols, Marty Robbins and the Clash. He launched the band See No Evil soon after high school, and later moved the group to New York City, landing a major-label deal with Sony
Music in the process. A decade later, though, Salmon found himself drawn to the rootsy sounds he'd heard as a child on the ranch, and he relaunched a career as an alt-country songwriter, eventually crossing paths with Seekins while playing shows in Sedona, Arizona. Meanwhile, Seekins grew up splitting her time between an Alaskan fishing village and an Arizona frontier town. Throughout it all, she honed her talent for dancing, eventually moving to New York City during her 20s and finding success as a choreographer. Unable to resist the need to pursue songwriting, she later headed back to Arizona, where she turned the contents of her personal journal into the lyrics of her very first songs.
www.surrenderhill.com
