Glen Hansard Is Making a New Album in Philadelphia and He Just Previewed It to a Sold Out Room
The Irish indie folk rocker has been working on new album, ‘Don+t Settle – Transmissions East & West,’ locally with The War on Drugs’ Charlie Hall, who sat in on a song at the gig.
Glen Hansard | Photo by Joey Sweeney
We might be able to break a little news here: Philadelphia, over these last few hard months, Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard has been in these parts, quietly making an album that will likely turn a new page in what is already a storied, multi-chapter career. More on that in a moment, because right now, it’s two songs into the set and I’ve just texted my partner:
“This damn Irishman has been on stage for like two songs, I don’t know any of them, and I can already tell that soon, I will probably be crying.”
Because it’s beautiful, all of it.
To a sold out audience at the First Unitarian Church, with all of the ambiance and feeling that the venue simply and elegantly carries, Hansard comes out with a full band and simply emotes into his career-spanning set with an impromptu appearance by Philly’s own Yesseh Ali on sax. It’s instantly gorgeous and if it wasn’t clear beforehand, this is a kind of soul music. (Ali is also in the mix on the new record.)
This tour is on the heels of a bit of a retrospective — the forthcoming Don+t Settle – Transmissions East & West — but it’s also happening in the same cone of time when Hansard has been walking these streets and making a new LP with The War On Drugs’ Charlie Hall at the production helm. Hall joins in at one point on a number called “Friends,” from whatever this new thing will be: It’s like Air backing up Al Green. It’ll get ya where you live; it’ll make you text your partner, if you haven’t already.
Throughout, the audience was there for it. The mellow songs, the impassioned shouters, and the stuff that’s feeling its way through the same things we’re all kinda feeling our various ways through right now. Hansard’s got a deep and dedicated fanbase, and they made this show feel a certain way that’s right in tandem with the music — welcoming, understanding, and on board for whichever way the emotional weather was going to go.
There was a moment when it seemed like Hansard might have had to choose if he was going to mainly be an actor or a singer-songwriter, but he’s carried with him into the musical realm a thing native to great actors: In his songs, he can play a lot of roles, and be authentic in all of them. Tonight was a kind of highlight reel, and it was gorgeous, filled with feeling, and a balm to the soul. But I can’t wait to hear what’s next.