Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage to appear at the Cambridge Folk Club
Hannah Sanders returned to the UK in 2013 (she missed the weather, especially in the springtime) after seven years living in Boston in the USA to retake her place as a major player on the thriving Cambridge folk scene.
She grew up travelling around Europe singing unaccompanied folk songs in four-part harmony with her family band, The Dunns.
She then walked away from music to pursue a career as a cultural anthropologist, becoming a leading expert on contemporary witchcraft and popular culture.
Her debut album, Charms Against Sorrow, was released in February 2015 and was produced by Ben Savage, singer, guitarist and dobro player with Cambridge folkies The Willows.
Sanders and Savage released their first collaborative effort, the 10-track Before the Sun, last September and the pair are spending most of this year on the road.
Sanders recalled: “I met Ben in a folk club in spring 2013. I’d gone to the Black Fen Folk Club [in Cambridge] just to get out of the house – I was trying to overcome the misery of having moved back to England!
“So I went to the club and Ben was there. He’d just come off tour with The Willows and it was one of those wonderful star-crossed moments.
“He asked if I’d ever thought of making a record and he went on to produce my debut album. We then made arrangements to work together as a duo, so it’s happened quite organically.”
Sanders said of Before the Sun: “We take great delight in trying to ensure that our work has a kind of harmony with the world around us. All the way through the album there are songs from both sides of the pond, some covers, some self-penned songs.
“They’re rooted in the folk tradition; the stuff of life and love and loss and death, the coming of the seasons and the passing of things – the human condition in the landscape.”
Sanders lives between Royston and Cambridge. She and Ben, who also calls Cambridgeshire home, will be performing at Cambridge Folk Club – upstairs at the Golden Hind on Milton Road – the oldest folk club in the city.
“It’s always something really special [performing in Cambridge],” said Sanders. “Cambridge Folk Club is one of the very first places I played when I came back from America and they’ve always been very supportive.
“We think it’s really important as musicians to put into your local club scene, so it’s lovely for us to have a gig there.”
Doors open at 7.30pm and the gig starts at 8pm on Friday, February 10.
Entry: £10 (door), £9 (advance), £8 (members). Box office: cambridgefolkclub.co.uk.
hannahbenmusic.com
