root salad Hannah Sanders

Simon Jones meets the maker of one of the past year’s Britfolk discovery albums.

music that I return to. The songs shapeshift to time, place and need. They are a melan- cholic’s chosen poison – for me they are an emotional life raft. I have great respect for traditional song – respect was a guiding principle for Ben and me making the record. The songs have to move to remain relevant. For me singing folk material is about giving different voicings in order to reach an audience. Otherwise they are artefacts. I don’t want to sing artefacts.”

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“I have always had songs as inner sign- posts. They took on a new resonance when I was in the United States, I struggled with a great sense of longing for home. I would take my boys in their pushchair down the southwest corridor in Boston’s Jamaica Plain, and sing to them as a means of anchoring myself. It wasn’t until I returned to the UK that I thought, maybe I could just play music. That was the moment of possibility…”

She was raised as part of a family of tra- ditional singers – The Dunn Family. “Memo- ries of singing with my family are all about driving! We would sing in the car or the bus (when we lived in a bus) to learn new songs, warm up, working through sets, often these were the most fun and creative moments.”

Life took her to Boston where she became an expert in popular culture and had a family. But… “I realised an academic life wasn’t for me. I moved out there shortly after completing my PhD, and spent a long time working as an academic and felt increasingly disillusioned.” So, missing Blighty, she returned home, and after fur- ther adventures eventually wound up in Cambridge. Was this accident or design?

“Accident really – an amazingly lucky accident. The scene here is varied, vibrant and really tight. I live a village away from all kinds of talented folks – Megson are in the next village! And the scene has been really welcoming. I have met some amazing people – producer Ben Savage, musicians who helped me find my way. I have been nurtured by the lovely people at the Black Fen Folk Club.”

It was in these environs that she was encouraged, particularly by Savage, to work up an album. “He casually asked if I had ever considered making an album and Charms Against Sorrow unfurled from there. We worked really closely on materi- al choice. We decided to lean on songs where I really had a sense of their interior.

Ben was very patient and I sent him hun- dreds of recordings of songs, he trawled through them, we talked and whittled away until we had those I thought would work together.”

The sessions weren’t all plain sailing

though. “We worked in places that could bring out the sound we were looking for. My friend Nick Hennessey’s cottage in the Lakes and a wonderful mill in Suffolk, Ballingdon Mill. I wanted to sing in spaces that had distinctive resonance and that would give the songs room to breathe. The process of recording was pretty intense and I spent a lot time getting into the right head space for a strong performance. That was a learning curve for me.”

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et you had great supporting play- ers. Hannah nods. “Yes, some came and joined the insanity for a bit! Jon Thorn – his bass adds something very important to the album – that gorgeous growl. Evan Carson holed up for a weekend to lay the drums down. Then Anna Scott bought her beautiful richness with the cello. I wanted other female voices on it: my little sister sang Pleasant And Delightful with me and Jade Rhiannon from The Willows came and sang on Joshuay.”

The visuals, I comment, are very striking.

“I’m very moved by how photography describes time – it shares a place with tradi- tional song in many ways. I had the pleasure

of working with great photographic artist Sid Ceaser. Sid and I decided on something really direct and honest for the album, and I think he captured it.”

Direct, empowered, Hannah stares out from the cover of Charms with an almost tangible mixture of determination and steel, it’s the sort of cover you can’t ignore. The album’s garnered great reviews (and you heard a track on fRoots 53) and now, within a relatively short space of time, Han- nah finds herself on the verge of festivals!

“Excited and a little apprehensive – festivals are quite a different beast. I am singing at Cambridge which is going to be magic, and Sark – a place with no vehicles – sounds blissful. And I’m delighted to be back with all the druids and singers and storytellers at Festival At The Edge. It’s looking like real fun.”

Looking further ahead, she’s Stateside in the autumn and then it’s heads down with Savage once more to consider their next move.

“I have come to performing at a point in my life where I can see what I need to work on, what I can strive for. So as long as people are happy to listen I juggle singing with writing and family. I need both of these creative outlets to stay sane really: my intention would be to continue to craft a life from these.”

hannahsandersfolk.com F

annah Sanders has definite opin- ions. There’s no pussyfooting about, she’s straight in there. “It’s the depth of traditional

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