Surrender Hill

Surrender Hill
For years, Robin Dean Salmon and Afton Seekins have made their living on the road.
As the songwriters behind Surrender Hill, they play more than 200 shows annually, sharpening their blend of soul, country, and rock & roll one gig at a time. They aren't just an Americana duo; they are full-time world travelers, too, funneling their experiences into the story-driven songs and autobiographical anthems that fill albums like A Whole Lot of Freedom and their latest, Just Another Honky Tonk in a Quiet Western Town.
Many of Surrender Hill's songs respond to the modern moment — songs about division, struggle, survival, and redemption, anchored by melodic hooks and diverse arrangements. Some songs nod to the band's longtime appreciation for mellow, melancholic Americana music. Others skew closer to honky-tonk and western swing, influenced by larger-than-life Texans like Bob Wills and Willie Nelson.
Their latest album Just Another Honky Tonk in a Quiet Western Town, is an ambitious double-album project that shows the full reach of Surrender Hill's abilities. The first record, Just Another Honky Tonk, unfolds like the jukebox playlist of some neon-lit cowboy bar in the Wild West. It's a lighthearted record, stocked with original songs inspired by Robin's childhood on a Texas ranch. An award-winning rock & roll frontman who spent the first half of his adolescence in apartheid-era South Africa, he relocated with his family to a longhorn ranch in Texas during the late '70s. When the teenage Robin wasn't listening to a cross-cultural mix of the Sex Pistols, the Texas Playboys, Marty Robbins, and the Clash, he'd participate in trail drives, spending his nights sleeping beneath the stars of a wide-open Texas sky. "I'll always remember the sound of these older cowboys sitting around the campfire during the evening, telling stories," says Robin, who pays tribute to those memories with Just Another Honky Tonk's opening track, "Cowboy Campfire Song."
Just Another Honk's counterpart is Quiet Western Town, an Americana record that digs deep into the lonesomeness of today's world. "Tumbleweed" is a song about isolation, inspired by the shuttered storefronts and empty sidewalks that turned once-thriving cities into ghost towns during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. "Call Upon My Friends" celebrates the social circles that can provide support during times of struggle, while "Love Your Neighbor" nods to the dividing lines that run throughout American society, with lyrics that call for open-mindedness and compassion.
The diversity that runs throughout the two-disc Just Another Honky Tonk in a Quiet Western Town is emblematic of the bandmates' own experiences. Before meeting Robin at a gig in Sedona, Arizona, Afton Seekins grew up splitting her time between an Alaskan fishing village and an Arizona frontier town. A talented dancer, she moved to New York City during her 20s and found success as a choreographer, although her songwriting career ultimately brought her back home to Arizona. Salmon, too, spent time in New York, where he signed a major-label deal with Sony Music as the frontman of the rock band See No Evil. A decade later, he found himself unable to shake the rootsy sounds of his childhood on the ranch, where cattle workers would strum country songs after a long day's work. Inspired, he relaunched a career as an alt-country songwriter, eventually forming a duo — and, later, a family — with Seekins.
Just Another Honky Tonk in a Quiet Western Town is an album that creates its own geography, setting up camp at the crossroads of Americana, outlaw country, and western music.