Before settling in Ellijay two years ago, the roads of life had already taken singer/songwriter Robin Salmon from a childhood in Durban, South Africa, then San Antonio, Texas, to the music scenes of New York, Atlanta and Nashville.
His wife and musical partner, Afton Salmon, had lived in Alaska, New York and Arizona before the two’s paths converged, leading to the formation of the band Surrender Hill.
The Salmons are happy to have landed in the north Georgia mountains, which has become a hub of activity for the busy musicians.
“We just kind of fell upon it,” Robin said. “I had lived and worked in Atlanta, but never ventured up to north Georgia till about 2015. After five years in Arizona, Afton and I started touring. We were coming through Atlanta and heading up to Nashville.”
A downtown Ellijay gig at The 1907 arranged by the bar and restaurant’s then-owner, Wayne Sloop, resulted in a string of shows at area wineries and other nearby venues, Robin said.
“We were splitting our time between Atlanta and Arizona and just ended up loving this area. We would go play somewhere like Birmingham, then travel back here to play a winery on the weekend. We started filling in the gaps that way,” he added.
“When we decided to have a child, we figured this would be a great place to settle down. It’s also a good place to make a living playing music because you can be at (a lot of) different places for gigs in about an hour. Out west, there’s much more traveling involved.”
Robin had already logged thousands of miles traveling and performing as a working musician prior to the 2014 formation of Surrender Hill, named for an early 20th century battleground near where he grew up. There, South Africans once joined forces to fight against control by the British Empire in the Anglo-Boer War.
Just out of high school, he fronted the politically-conscious hard rock band See No Evil, which released its 1989 self-titled debut on CBS Associated Records and 1990’s Songs on the Epic label.
“We were called Critical Mass for a while and were more punk rock, but (it turned into) more of a progressive rock band. We went out (on tour) with a lot of bands including The Alarm, Cyndi Lauper and a great ‘80s band, The Call, who had a big hit with ‘The Walls Came Down,’” he remembered. “During the late 1990s, I started gravitating more toward artists like Wilco and Ryan Adams, who had an alternative sound with a really cool, rootsy aspect to their music. I switched gears and focused more on writing songs.”
While living and working in Nashville and Atlanta, the prolific songwriter developed the more traditional Americana style displayed on his 2005 and 2007 solo albums Gasoline and Come On Home.
“When I moved from New York to Atlanta, writing and working with a lot of other artists taught me a lot about melody and the craft of songwriting,” he said. “Around 2000, I started writing these cowboy and honky tonk-type songs with (an Atlanta) band called Jack West. Then I started going to Nashville and writing with guys up there. I lived there for about two years and produced other artists’ records out of a studio. While I was doing that, I started making (the album) Gasoline.”
That release brought out the troubadour in Robin with its songs about heartache and hard travel. It also paired him with some stellar Nashville guests including singer/songwriter Rodney Crowell, guitarist “Cousin” Kenny Vaughn and pedal steel session pro Al Perkins.
“I had the fortunate opportunity of having Rodney to come in and sing on a song. Kenny is a fantastic guitar player who’s now the lead guitarist in Marty Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives and Al Perkins, who was a pedal steel player for Emmylou Harris and many others, has worked on a couple of my records,” he said.
Afton had worked as a professional choreographer for a modern jazz dance company in New York City before coming back to Arizona where she began performing as a singer/songwriter.
“She was doing it on her own and then played in a duo called Stolen Boulevard with a guy named P.K. Gregory, who was also the bass player in my band. She would come and sing at some of our gigs. When we started writing together, that was it,” Robin said.
Darkness meets light
The sound of Surrender Hill is heavy on twangy guitars and rich harmony vocals, as well as the do-it-yourself sensibility of early punk rock. Robin described a lyrical balance of darkness and light he and Afton have developed recording five albums together.
“Afton is an incredibly positive human being in all aspects and is very grounded. She’s brought a lot of light to our songs, whereas I was definitely on the darker side of things. I had written love songs, but they all had kind of an edge, a darker side, to them,” he said.
“When we started writing together, there was a point where I actually got a little nervous because there was so much love and positivity (in those songs). As we went on, we started getting a better balance. On our last album, Tore Down Fences, we started exploring our pasts and how they (brought us to) our present lives.”
“Broken Down Car,” a song that Robin had previously recorded, appears with new fittings on the forthcoming Surrender Hill album, A Whole Lot of Freedom.
“Trying to make time in a bucket of rust/ Running in the red, but you’re going for bust/ Riding in a tin can, living pretty mean, man/ You better slow down,”advises one verse, an example of how the duo can lend comfort to a cloudy song about bleak circumstances.
“I wrote that song in 2007. Afton and I were goofing around one day and I was thinking about how, back when I wrote it, my life was pretty good. Then, just two years later, I was going through the worst year of my life. It was like I’d written a prophecy of what my life would be like in two years,” Robin explained.
“We decided to bring it back and I thought it would be way more poignant if Afton sang it because it fits her vocals so well. It’s become one of my favorites because she sings it now. She’s a dynamite vocalist with this incredible rootsy smokiness in her voice.”
The duo’s most thorough and far-reaching album to date, A Whole Lot of Freedom showcases their strengths for strong harmony singing and engaging story songs, which range from mid-tempo balladry to wide-open country rockers. The single disc, double-length album was recorded at a home studio in Ellijay with the full 5-to-6 person version of the band, then mastered in Nashville.
“We culled it down from about 45 songs, all of which were written during a time (shortly) before our son, Wren, was born. We cut and cut and finally ended up with 18 songs and decided that was it,” Robin said.
“Nowadays, making a double CD (with two discs) is ridiculous moneywise, but we do listen to a lot of vinyl albums at home,” he continued. “It’s so funny how short some of those classic double albums are. You put one of the records on and flip it over in 20 minutes, then flip it again after another 20. One of my favorite double albums for years has been Bruce Springsteen’s The River. My son, who’s 18 months old now, loves every song on there, too, so we’ve listened to that record a lot. That kind of steered this thing a little bit, the length of it. I’m comfortable having that length of an album to listen to.”
A Whole Lot of Freedom won’t officially be available till April, but Surrender Hill hosted a hometown CD release show last month at the George Link Jr. Gilmer Arts Playhouse to preview the new material.
With tickets selling out well in advance of the show date, that concert reinforced the connection the band has developed with local audiences.
“That was a joy for us and we’re really grateful for all the support. We put a heck of a lot onto our hometown shows to make them something memorable. We want to show everybody our appreciation,” Robin said.
Catch them live or on TV
Local winery concerts remain steady for Surrender Hill, who’ve been known to perform around 200 live dates a year. A condensed version of the group will perform at several Gilmer vineyards this month. The more intimate concerts usually feature the duo of the Salmons with acoustic instrumentation.
They’re scheduled to be at Ott Farms and Vineyard Dec. 14, Engelheim Vineyards Dec. 21, Cartecay Vineyards Dec. 22 and Chateau Meichtry Dec. 28.
“Next April, we’ll be heading out west,” Robin said.
In the meantime, an entire episode of the new Amazon Prime series Undiscovered is devoted to Surrender Hill. The first-season series follows the lives of several independent musicians and bands.
“It’s by a guy named Chris Wheeler and we’re in episode six. Even though I’m not big on watching myself in video form, there are a lot of really good, talented artists who are (featured) on there,” Robin said.