Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage – The Strangers’ Share: Album Review

By Mike Ainscoe on 25th October 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Calling on the lightning spell, Sanders & Savage back to their signature pin-drop intimacy and exquisite songcraft.

Release Date: 17th October 2025

Label: Sungrazing Records

Format: CD / digital

CHASING DREAMS

Pretty much hot on the heels of 2024’s In The Dark We Grow, Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage return with their 5th full length album. Given the keys to the West Country studio of engineer / percussionist / member of the In The Dark We Grow band, Josh Clark, the focus centres upon a set of songs themed around dreams and the supernatural.

While 2024 was spent with the duo working in the frameworks of both the A Winter Union band and their own In The Dark We Grow band, the overwhelming feeling was that it was “time to turn inward. We were both independently writing and arranging dream songs… some traditional, some our own,” says Ben. The task remained “to try and bottle it for people.” They seem to have succeeded.

CALLING THE LIGHTNING SPELL

Although the title track kicks off with a patter of percussion that provides a bridge between In The Dark… and The Strangers’… the songs again capture the breath-holding, pin-drop intimacy that makes their gigs such an experience. Masterful interpreters and original songwriters – spotting the join is no easy task with the uniqueness they bring to their musical storytelling. Opening the album with two originals, the pre-release tease of Springtime Queen is majestic. Both voices, Ben rich and lonesome, Hannah floating up in the clouds free as a bird, are given the spotlight as the delicacy of the vintage guitars adds a light sparkle.

THINGS TO CHERISH

Within the framework their light is shone on nightvisiting, the uncanny yet beautiful and the blessing of a new morning. The narrative of Lowlands is positively heartbreaking; be warned of heading too deep, maybe just take the time to simply cherish Hannah’s delivery and the less is more electric guitar that’s becoming part of the armoury.

Three of the opening four songs are their own and Magicians – note our deliberate avoidance, however strong the temptation, to use the title as a shoe in – achieves the award for turning the potentially overdose of saccharine in the “Down, derry derry down” line into a bit of a masterstroke. A fine example too of the sonic clarity that allows a faint breath of Savage vocal to waft through; and a contender for personal fave track on the record.

They probably do themselves a disservice, humbly giving over the centrepiece in the sequence to Dylan and Lal Waterson and their musically darker and lower key – a direction that could have easily been extended with a more sombre take on Toni and Dave Arthur’s Morning Stands On Tiptoe. And yes that is the Playschool Toni of my (and maybe your) younger days…. However, there’s a bright and breezy, bluegrassy without the banjo, lightness and joy they bring to the piece, with Ben calling on his drumming past with a soft shuffle that Josh would be proud of.

FRESH COATS ON THE TRAD

Giving the traditional a fresh coat, Once I Had A Sweetheart – “a timeless dreaminess” – and the aged roots of the spiritual Trouble In Mind are gateways to other worlds. The second personal highlight is another B&H original Times Like These. The idea of “a little song” that celebrates finding joy in small places is a sound philosophy. Teasingly mournful, the message though is strong and clear and thought provoking.

Yeah, we’re already onboard and may be preaching to the all-knowing converted, but they’ve even earned a Jude Rogers brief but positive (“atmospheric, lush product“) review in The Guardian which has them as “Cambridge’s Gillian Welch and David Rawlings.” With the latter pair selling out the London Palladium and Manchester Apollo in the past few weeks, there’s clearly an audience for such music. Having seen B&H transcend larger stages and festival fields, one wonders how much longer we’ll have the chance to share the magic in small local venues up and down the country lest they too, become stadium monsters.

Take a toke of delight…Magicians: