Glen Hansard’s journeyman career has so many fantastic stories, from his shy film debut in ‘The Commitments’ to the surprise success of his indie hit film ‘Once’. In between he has lifted audiences around the world with his spiritual, driven performances, as the leader of lauded Irish heroes ‘The Frames’, and half of the duo ‘The Swell Season’. Now Glen Hansard is finally where he wants to be, with no intervening structure between him and his audience. For ‘Rhythm and Repose’, Hansard has stripped away the emotional layers to reach a core, a core that shines through in songs like ‘Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting’ with its easy, Muscle Shoals vibe. There is also a new power of feeling on songs like ‘Philander’, with Hansard capturing a vocal intensity live in the studio we have not heard from him before. And this is Glen Hansard’s time. Building on the success of ‘Once’, now a Broadway musical receiving rave reviews and talk of Tony awards, Glen is part of this season’s hottest soundtrack, ‘The Hunger Games’, which features Glen performing under his own name, and as a writer for Maroon Five’s track ‘Come Away From the Water’. Hansard is poised to join his heroes Van Morrison and Bob Dylan as a musical icon, and this is the album on which he finally puts his name.

Glen’s TV appearances with The Swell Season include the Academy Awards, The Simpsons, and pretty much every late night show.
The ‘Once’ musical launched on Broadway this spring 2012 to ecstatic reviews.

As part of The Swell Season, Glen has sold out venues from Radio City Music Hall to a triumphant 3-night run at the Chicago Theater. Under his own name he has toured extensively with Eddie Vedder, often joining Vedder on stage for spirited duets.

‘Falling Slowly’ is a song written and performed by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, as well as by Hansard’s band, The Frames. It appeared in their 2007 film ‘Once’, from which it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 80th Academy Awards (2008).The song has now scanned nearly 815,000 tracks to date, and last summer was covered by Kris Allen, winner of American Idol, whose version has sold over 61K.