A Street Musician at Heart
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- Glen Hansard, the Oscar-winning Irish singer-songwriter, died this week at age 56, prompting tributes from across the music industry including Bono, who called him the 'voice of the streets'
- Hansard won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 'Falling Slowly' from the 2007 indie film Once, performing it alongside co-star and musical collaborator Markéta Irglová while playing his battered Takamine guitar nicknamed 'the Horse'
- Hansard left school at 13 to busk on the streets of Dublin, an experience he repeatedly credited with making him 'egoless, unflappable' and shaping the communal, inclusive approach that defined his performances
- Beyond Once, Hansard was the frontman of the Frames, one of Ireland's most successful rock bands, and one half of the Swell Season folk duo with Irglová; he earned four Grammy nominations and toured with Eddie Vedder and Bruce Springsteen
- His final two-volume retrospective album was titled 'Don't Settle,' a phrase that captured his ethos; he had just finished recording another record he hoped to release next spring, making his sudden death feel untimely
- At Radio City Music Hall in August 2023, Hansard invited a young Boston street musician named Gabriel onstage — instruments unplugged — to perform 'Say It to Me Now' together, a gesture the piece holds up as the purest expression of his belief that music is a shared, open act
- Many of Hansard's concerts closed with an audience a cappella sing-along of the Irish folk ballad 'The Auld Triangle,' a ritual that turned venues into the kind of communal space he said busking had first taught him to build
Why it matters: Hansard died at 56 with a new record just completed and slated for a spring release, cutting short a four-decade career he himself insisted was 'nowhere near done,' per the piece. His death removes from Irish music a figure Bono christened 'the voice of the streets' and ends a still-active creative run before the artist felt finished.
