Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage
London Album Launch
Support from Jack Harris
Tuesday 15th May
Heath Street Baptist Church, Hampstead
Doors 7:30pm, Music 8:00pm
Huddled round a single microphone, singing intimate duets with just mountain dulcimer, dobro and guitar Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage are a folk duo that look & sound classically timeless, yet feel refreshingly unique. Fleetingly, they may evoke a memory of Gram & Emmylou, Shirley & Davey, or Gillian & David but their warm distilling of influences from both sides of the big pond produces a refined sound that is decidedly their own.
“Spellbinding… Hannah and Ben were born to play and sing together.”
fRoots (Nominated albums of 2016 in Critics Poll)
★★★★★”An exquisite soundscape, which is the result of passion, precision and unbridled intimacy. An album to venerate.”
R2 Magazine
Both hailing from folk singing families in the flatlands of East Anglia, Hannah spent much of her formative years touring Europe with her family band in a converted school bus, singing folk songs acapella in the street in order to make enough money to move to the next city. However, a sea change and relocation to the US saw her soak up the influences from the American North East and take up the dulcimer. Meanwhile Ben was writing and touring with celebrated UK folk band The Willows whose albums Beneath Our Humble Soil and Amidst Fiery Skies were championed by the likes of the BBC’s Bob Harris and Mike Harding.
Within weeks of moving back the UK, Hannah braved her first time out solo at The Black Fen Folk Club, Cambridge and as fate would have it, Ben had just returned from tour. Ben went on to produce Hannah’s solo debut Charms Against Sorrow, released in early 2015 to critical acclaim.
★★★★ “Magical folk harmonies – A lovely album”
Maverick Magazine
Jack Harris’ songs take a compassionate look at things both common and uncommon, and see them differently. They are literate, curious songs, often in character, always intriguing. His latest album, ‘The Wide Afternoon’, assembles 11 new songs, rooted in Folk and Blues traditions, telling real and imagined stories.