Hannah & Ben

Just about a year since the In The Dark We Grow album (“a glorious record“) and pretty sharpish off the back of that and a bout of touring comes the recorded return of UK folk/Americana duo Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage.

As an intro to their 5th full length album The Strangers’ Share – the album will appear on Sungrazing Records on 17th October (pre-orders possibly in advance) and will be accompanied by a 17-date tour – they’ve showcased an old school, double-A side release, combining Springtime Queen and Morning Stands On Tiptoe.

The new songs are built around themes of dreams and the supernatural and Springtime Queen offers a mouthwatering taster. As Hannah poetically explains : “In the depths of Winter we dream of Spring, and perhaps Spring herself dreams of that fleeting meeting with Winter. The Springtime Queen describes their imagined meeting. The yellow and the green are the early Winter Aconites, the emissaries of light, pushing through the last vestiges of dark and cold.”

THE RETURN OF THE DUO

Sonically, the release sees the duo return from a period of working in a band format with Josh Clark, Jacob Stoney and Jon Thorne, to the pin-drop intimacy of the up close and personal single microphone format that made their name. Every breath a every creak from their vintage instruments has been captured at Get Real Audio by Ben in the recorder and producer chair.

It takes a mere ten seconds to fall under the spell of gentle seduction and herald another H&B classic. Both voices get the chance to take the spotlight before combining in their signature harmonic splendour. And having just witnessed Robert Plant at Cropredy, his is a voice we’d love to hear coming around to play – he surely has H&B on his radar.

Morning Stands On Tiptoe ups the tempo, finding the pair transforming a traditional English hunting song into a a joyful ode to the breaking of dawn and all that can be revealed and renewed through the promise of morning. The gentle brushwork adds a jaunty rhythm as “the blackbirds in full cry” and the “chorus of the day” take hold amidst the nimble fingerwork and tumble of guitar.

Needless to say, we’re already on board with a duo that can seemingly do no wrong, be it gathered around a single mic in a dimly lit club or entertaining a festival crowd with their compadres. Sounding a little like a song they should write, October can’t come soon enough.

Check out the single here

October / November tour dates here

Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage online: Website / Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram

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