Glen Hansard

"Didn't He Ramble" is the second solo outing from acclaimed singer songwriter Glen Hansard. The new album is his first in over three years and follows 2012's solo debut "Rhythm & Repose", which Billboard hailed as “Hansard at his most engaging”. Didn't He Ramble was produced by Thomas Bartlett (The National, Sufjan Stevens), a frequent collaborator of Hansard's, and Grammy winner and former Frames band-mate David Odlum (Paloma Faith, Tinariwen). The album, which was recorded in New York, Dublin, Chicago and France, is Hansard's most intimate and elegant record since his work in Once and features guest appearances by John Sheahan (Dubliners), Sam Beam (Iron and Wine) and Sam Amidon. Glen Hansard is the celebrated principal songwriter and vocalist/guitarist for the influential Irish group The Frames.

Prolific singer-songwriter Glen Hansard has enjoyed an illustrious career that boasts credits with The Frames, The Swell Season and a starring role in the motion-picture film, Once, for which he won an Academy Award. Rhythm and Repose, an album over twenty years in the making, is Hansard’s debut as a soloist. The emotion-provoking work is led primarily by piano and acoustic guitar. Standout tracks include “Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting,” “Maybe Not Tonight” and “You Will Become.” The album also finds Hansard collaborating with music greats, Brad Albetta, Ray Rizzo, Nico Muhly, Rob Moose, David Mansfield, Javier Mas and half of Bruce Springsteen’s current horn section. Rhythm and Repose proves why Hansard is widely considered one of music’s greatest songwriters.

Those who have followed Glen Hansard's career since his Academy Award winning turn in the film Once will have witnessed one artistic arc: the journey of a Dublin busker who cut his teeth on the greats - Dylan, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen - and followed the path of the troubadour to great effect. But there is another thread running through Hansard's musicianship; in his decades as lead singer of Irish stalwarts The Frames, rock and folk ambitions coexisted with moments of strangeness, intimacy, and stillness.

Not many heroes of indie folk have won an Oscar or created the basis of a successful stage musical, but Glen Hansard is an artist who can wear both of those feathers in his cap. As a member of the Frames and the Swell Season, Hansard won acclaim for his literate, intelligent, and passionate songwriting and his nuanced vocals, and he's gone on to win similar accolades as a solo artist. Hansard first gained an audience for the limber but emphatic indie rock he created as a member of The Frames, then gained international fame with fellow singer and songwriter Marketa Irglova int he duo The Swell Season, whose emotionally open, primarily acoustic indie folk became the centerpiece of the award-winning independent romantic drama Once. After going out on his own with his 2012 solo debut, Rhythm and Repose, Hansard has shown a stylistic diversity as he embraced the sound of '70s singer/songwriters on 2015's Didn't He Ramble, vintage soul on 2018's Between Two Shores, and an eclectic swing between subtle folk and noisy indie rock on 2019's This Wild Willing.

The opening track on 2019's This Wild Willing, "I'll Be You, Be Me," begins with a fuzzy rhythm track and a bass patiently thumping over a clanky rhythm machine as Glen Hansard delivers his lyrics in an ominous murmur. Four minutes later it snowballs into a massive tower of cacophony with guitars, keyboards, and strings united in a howling frenzy of sonic force. It's a powerful way to start an album, and while it's easily the set's boldest departure from the introspective but passionate indie folk that has been Hansard's trademark, it sets the stage for a set that finds Hansard pushing his stylistic boundaries. This Wild Willing was primarily written during a four-week working holiday in Paris, and Hansard received input and inspiration from a wide variety of fellow artists, running the gamut from Irish traditional folk instrumentalists to experimental electronic musicians. Hansard merged his subdued but passionate melodies and lyrics with the many musical favors of his collaborators and has given us an album that pushes him forward as a recording artist.

Irish folk songwriter Glen Hansard will return early next year with his third solo album, Between Two Shores. The follow-up to 2015’s Grammy-nominated Didn’t He Ramble is due out January 18th via Anti-.

Irish folk songwriter Glen Hansard will return early next year with his third solo album, Between Two Shores.