Centred on themes of dreams and the supernatural, with their vintage guitars accompanied by just Jon Thorne on double bass, Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage‘s fifth album, The Strangers’ Share, sees a return to the single microphone intimacy of their debut.
Mingling original material with traditional and covers, Thorne’s bass notes and a gathering tempo guitar run opens the title track with Ben on lead which draws on author Kevin Crossley-Holland’s 1997 retelling of the East Anglian ecology-based folk tale about our relationship with the land wherein tiny beings with long arms, legs and tongues, who, clad in green and yellow, would repay offerings of grain and the like by making the buds open and helping with harvest. However, the story tells of how the people turned their backs on them, “turned out the old stories” and “Hearths went dry”.
Another self-penned number rooted in nature, the simply picked Springtime Queen, finds them sharing verses on the changing seasons, the song imaging a meeting between Winter and Spring on the cusp of transition (“I’m longing for this to end/Cold and dark are bitter friends/When it comes, I’ll utter a word/Breaking the dawn, pushing the bell /Calling a lightning spell”) and the coming of the emissary Winter Aconites in their greens and yellows.
The first of the traditional treads well ploughed ground with their poignantly lovely dobro-flecked reading of Lowlands Away, a night visiting song in which a woman learns of her lover’s death through a dream. A dream also being the source of the moody guitar motif that underpins Hannah’ shapeshifting song Magicians, a riff on the traditional The Two Magicians where lovers turn into animals to be together as they move across the landscape as she asks “Is this your shape, is this your call?/The hunted or the hunter, or the biggest fool of all?”. In solid trad style, there’s even a “down derry derry down”.
With the backdrop of the destruction of communities caused by the closure of the Port Talbot blast furnaces, featuring Hannah on harmonies, Ben was inspired to record a sparsely fingerpicked interpretation of Dylan’s thematically resonant North Country Blues (“Come gather round friends/And I’ll tell you a tale/Of when the red iron pits they ran plenty/But the cardboard filled windows/And old men on the benches/Tell you now that the whole town is empty”).
It’s followed by the second cover, returning to the themes of dreams and our declining relationship with the land, with Hannah’s achingly beautiful and sad take on Lal Waterson’s symbolism-heavy Fine Horseman.
Returning to the traditional tale and shifting to a lively, uptempo pace, Morning Stands On Tiptoe is an old hunting song here recast as an ode to the breaking of dawn with its promises of renewal, replacing the lines about the echoing horn and hounds in full cry with ones of blackbirds singing and secret lovers.
The last of the originals, sung by Hannah, Times Like These, has an Appalachian hymnal feel as it speaks of finding uplifting moments when you feel at odds with the world, encouraging “Gather flowers wherever you find them/Make a home wherever you place them/Share a jar or a laugh with your neighbour/Take your place, return all your favours” and of how “joy can be found in small places”.
Ben taking lead, there’s a final traditional with the penultimate Once I Had A Sweetheart, the jazz tints to the guitar work aptly setting up the album closer Trouble In Mind, their shared verses arrangement of a song by jazz pianist Richard M. Jones first recorded in 1924 but with roots in the spirituals of the early 1800s, the darkness laced with optimism, finally finding its way into the studio after having been a staple of their live shows for several years.
The Strangers’ Share is a captivating reminder of how, especially in the hands of Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage, less can so often be more. The album is indeed a shared pleasure.
The Stranger’s Share (October 17th, 2025) Sungrazing Records
Pre-Order via Hannah & Ben (includes special bundle offers): https://www.hannahbenmusic.com/store
The Strangers’ Share Tour Dates
2nd October – Forest Arts, New Forest, Hampshire
9th October – Sudbury Arts Centre, Sudbury
10th October – Otford Memorial Hall, Sevenoaks
11th October – Stoller Hall, Manchester
12th October – Derby Folk Festival, Derby
13th October – St Marys Creative Space, Chester
16th October – The Old Stables, Cricklade, Swindon
19th October – The Junction, Cambridge
23rd October – The New Room, Bristol
24th October – Riverhouse Barn Arts, Walton On Thames
25th October – The Farrier, Otley
26th October – Coquetdale Music Centre
6th November – Chapel Arts, Bath
7th November – Norden Farm Arts Centre, Maidenhead
9th November – Cromer Arts Centre, Cromer
11th November – Pavilion Theatre, Worthing
26th March – Kings Place, London
Ticket Links: https://www.hannahbenmusic.com/