Sunfire – Blackwater Valley (2026)

This is a review I hoped would be years in the future, and I’m writing it with tears in my eyes, as it is the last Sunfire review I will be able to do. Just weeks after releasing Blackwater Valley, Sunfire confirmed something I was already fearing when I read the liner notes written by Satria Karsono’s alter ego Billy Tanner in the artwork of Blackwater Valley. Sunfire is going to quit this year. Fantasy Forest will be their very last concert.

Here are Sunfire’s own words on it:
‘After 10 incredible years, we’ve decided that the time has come for Sunfire to end. This journey has meant everything to us. What started as an idea grew into something far beyond what we could have imagined, and that’s all because of the people around us. To our fans…thank you for showing up, for feeling the music, laughing, crying, dancing and for sharing these moments with us. To the Sunfire team, thank you for your dedication and for making every show possible. And thank you friends and family for your endless support and belief in us. We are deeply grateful for every single memory we’ve made together. Thank y’all for everything!’

So there you have it. The end of an era. One that I was allowed to follow closely, so this is going to be a bit more then just a review for me. As it will be for many of you readers.

Born out of friendship

What I will remember most of Sunfire is the friendship within the band, but also the friendship you felt every time Sunfire interacted with their fans. It’s that friendship that made it very easy for fans to embrace the band.
Another thing that made Sunfire special was their genuine love for making music. It is that shared love for creating and experimenting that helped Sunfire create something unique: their own musical world called Western folk.

I remember a couple of conversations with lead singer Satria Karsono about my reviews, where he questioned some of my comparisons in his typical, respectful way. And he was right. As a reviewer you try to describe music by comparing it, explaining it in a certain style, trying to describe the sound of one band by comparing them to others.
But with artists like Sunfire that doesn’t work. They never aim to ‘write music in a certain style’. Artists like Sunfire are all about discovering music; about creating new things and about challenging themselves musically, growing as artists. Sunfire isn’t a style. It is what you get when you bring these five talented musicians together with all their different personal styles.

There is Satria Karsono: the singer/songwriter with his deep love for David Crosby but also the Red Hot Chili Peppers (to name but two).
There is Sophie Zaaijer: the fiddle folk wizardess who can drop a flaming solo at you in an instant without even blinking.
You have Michel Beeckman: the waltzing groove machine that will make even the most grounded fungi dance.
There is Jeroen van Leeuwen: the centipede drum machine; certified engine of the band with his energetic shuffle function and full jumping capability.
And there is Berend de Vries: virtuoso rock guitar soloist extraordinaire – once compared with the legend that is Alex van Halen in a review – but with a total down to earth, modest complexion (and with added studio skills to make Sunfire shine as bright on their albums as they do on stage.)
With every new album you could feel Sunfire re-exploring themselves, and Blackwater valley is no exception.

Before I get into the musical part, I want to go into the lyrics. I’ve never really done that with a Sunfire album, which is a shame as the lyrics are such an important part of the Western folk world that the band have created.
As I read the lyrics from the new album Blackwater Valley and compare them with those of the last two albums I personally get the sense they are a trilogy. I don’t know if this was the intention but let me explain myself.

The tale of Sinners’ town

It all kicked off with Sinners’ town, placed in a county somewhere deep in the wild west, in a time where the Western pioneers tried to cut a life in new pastures where the grass was good and the buffalo roamed freely.
Some were good people just wanting to make a living [Long Road to Come], but from the start Satria focused more on the backstreets of human interaction. Those bleak spots where the ugly side of humanity tends to hide. Jordan, Shot, Gallow Waltz and Roadburn are beautiful examples of it. Told in little stories they show the darker side of human nature.
And he also had an eye for the other side of America’s conquest; the Native American side. The side of indigenous people who lived in harmony with nature [Soul], but were eventually pushed out by the ‘glorious’ white men [The War Is Won].

Where Sinners’ town‘s lyrics are full of seizing opportunities – be they good or bad – the lyrics on The Devil’s Drink are a lot more introspective. The main theme there is that of remorse. On The Devil’s Drink Satria really carves out the characters that make up Sinners’ Town. They are looking back at their life choices and in general the outcome is not good. Some find remorse in the bottle [The Devil’s Drink, Leave The Bottle], some in women [Saywer’s Dance], some in thought and denial [Ballad of River, Grit] and some… well they just met their fate [The Hunter].
All the songs are little stories again, sometimes describing a scene, sometimes giving a glimpse of the human soul, but never with a clear opinion being pushed in your face. You can find a lot of room for thought if you want to within the lines [Ballad of River, The War Is Won], but you can also enjoy them as they are. Cool stories with a nice, dark edge.

Blackwater Valley; The last, gruesome page

Blackwater Valley is the last page in the story of Sinners’ Town and the story does not end well. I remember reading Western stories when I was a kid: there was a whole series of them that came out every month. In these stories there was always a sleepy town, deep in the Wild West, ruled by ruthless men. There was always one helpless person trying to live a good, honest life. Conveniently those helpless people were mostly pretty young women who could take care of a lonesome hero. Because those were always there. One single hero standing against injustice. Those heroes always got seriously wounded, barely surviving under the gentle care of those same pretty young women, but they would always overcome everything in one final big heroic shoot-out. I loved these stories as a kid.
Well, the story of Sinners’ Town does not end like that. There is no hero. There is no hope. The future in this place feels as grim as the black water flowing through the valley where it lies. If you read the lyrics on their own they are pitch black. There is no final grand twist here. Sinners’ Town has reached the gutter of society and will most likely end there, forgotten and left behind.

Now I have to be honest, reading the lyrics of Blackwater Valley like that on their own didn’t work for me. I didn’t really like them. I was looking for some tongue-in-cheek twist that would lighten the load, but there was none. For that I needed to bring in the music, because there was the light note I was looking for: in the contrast between the cheerful music and the dark murder folk stories. And suddenly the lyrics did work! That is the magic of Satria’s songwriting talent. He makes you sing the most horrible things with a huge smile on your face: Shot, Reaper’s Train, Saywer’s Dance – whip me, whip me –, and Soul – Take my body, take my soul – are just a few of the examples of that. On Blackwater Valley, Satria does it all over again.

Discovering new musical worlds

These 10 years listening to Sunfire made me appreciate a whole new musical world I knew nothing about: Americana and its subgenres. Trying to understand the lyrics on Blackwater Valley made me discover yet another of those subgenres: dark country. It’s a style where dark lyrics are brought with a gritty, mean, bluesy, country sound. Music made using tons of sandpaper on the vocals and a coffee grinder for a guitar sound. Check out the music of Blues Saraceno and you’ll know what I’m on about. Ballad of River from The Devil’s Drink album is in this dark country style.

Now, the cool thing is that Sunfire does these dark folk lyrics, and then throws the rule book out of the window yet again by soaking them in the most cheerful, upbeat ragtime, Dixieland and swing jazz tunes possible.

Instant Earworms

The Rat & The Rattlesnake is the first and best example. An instant earworm. A dancing tune waiting for an audience to explode into full party mode. The urge to sing along is instantaneous: “spread the word, spread the word, treasures buried in the dirt.” Well, the ‘word’ is that the bad guy always wins in Sinners’ Town.
Sunfire are on fire on this opening track. The gritty guitar sound is totally dark country, the Mexican trumpet taking the lead on this track is most definitely not. Nor is the ragtime party style and the upbeat shuffled drums. What a song, and so typical of Sunfire. They don’t do songs by the book. No, they take what they like from European folk and Americana and find their own unique twist on it. Special kudos for that final screamed-out high note. That one is seriously impressive!

The next song is called Incantation Of Rot. You would expect some moody, gnarly folk tune here, bu nope. Not with Sunfire. Instead, you get a swinging mid tempo jazz tune – a bit like the Dutch band Them Dirty Dimes.

The music is nice and upbeat, the guitar and violin solos are sophisticated, as are those subtle harmonies sliding in and out of the chorus. the whole song is sophisticated actually, which makes the contrast with Satria’s lunatic laughter and singing as the song progresses even bigger. He has become such a performer. This is what it would sounds like if Batman’s The Joker were to visit Sinners’ Town.
I have not heard Satria THAT expressive yet. Clean singing; whispered vocals; fully belted high notes; a slight bit of grit to spice things up; beautiful harmonies; and the weirdest sort of ‘duet battle’ between him and Magda Andersson (Ye Banished Privateers, Magda Novels): in my opinion Blackwater Valley is his best performance as a singer yet.

Blackwater Valley and Same Shit Different Day are two more jazzy songs with huge sing-a-long qualities. That is the biggest difference with the two earlier Sunfire records. Where on previous albums the band explored all kinds of different music styles, this time they made it a lot easier for us reviewers. Ragtime, swing and Dixie are the main musical ingredients. Giving Blackwater Valley an easy downbeat vibe. The music feels like a big comfy armchair. But one that will kick and buck if you are not careful. Well done Berend de Vries on the recording and mixing of this album. It is all in the details on Blackwater Valley.

The start of Pocket Full Of Gold is such a detail. It is an homage to the man in black himself: Johnny Cash. And to Sergio Leone‘s famous ‘spaghetti western whistle intro’. It’s Once Upon a Time in the West meets Rawhide.

But not for long: the Sunfire style quickly takes over again with Jeroen’s typical brush wire shuffles, some cool Brotherwood, The Lonesome Malones harmonies and some great trumpet melodies again to frame this picture all in. Kudos for the role of Frank Grillo on this album. I love the extra warmth he brings to the Sunfire sound. I sure hope that we will see him perform on the final Sunfire gig.

So there we have it. The final review has been written. The Sunfire story is almost done. Blackwater Valley is a special ending to that story. A last glorified black page in the soon to be history of Sinner’s Town. Not the one I expected, but that’s Sunfire for you. They never do the expected. But if you like the unique Western folk world that Sunfire created over the years, this album will not disappoint you at all. It will surprise you in the most pleasant of ways.

Fare-thee-well Henri River, Cole Burner, Madam Saywer and Deputy Frost. I will see you all in hell.
And for you, Billy Tanner. The final words of this review are for you, you old banjo teasing geezer:

-‘We are parting as a great group of friends who have been in this together for 10 years. What can I say! Sometimes it’s just good to leave the party at its peak.
It’s been a ride! Sunfire has always been a true artistic expression for me, both in artwork and music: writing and building this old Western world filled with tales riddled with bullets, the dark occult, God, the Devil, and that eternal battle between good and evil. But it’s more than that. Seeing you all in front of the stage over the years has been a true blessing. You’ve felt the music. You’ve danced, sung, cried, and laughed with us, which for me was all I could have ever wished for. I’ve seen the Sunfire team grow into an epic force of nature, nine people strong, making the shows work their way into your hearts. The least I can say is that I am more than proud of what we have become.
I am so grateful. Thank you all for this amazing ride! From organizers who gave us a kickstart when we were merely an idea, to fans who traveled miles and miles to come and see us, to our friends and loved ones who’ve always had our backs.
Thank you for everything. It was truly something.
Satria‘
[Taken from his facebook page.]

Thank you Satria, Berend, Michel, Jeroen and Sophie for these 10 years. From small beginning to the upcoming last hurrah. It was one hell of a ride!