BBC reports it was a motorcycle crash outside of Dublin.
He was only 56. Incredibly sad; I loved his music. What a loss.
Wow, what a bummer.
If you’ve not seen the movie “Once”, you owe it to yourself to check it out (or at least listen to the soundtrack).
mmm
Falling Slowly is his most famous song (for which he won the Oscar), recorded with Marketa Irglova and featured in Once, referenced above by Mean Mr. Mustard. IMO, it’s one of the most beautiful songs ever written, and if you’ve never heard it, you owe it to yourself to listen to this live version, which captures both its delicateness and its majesty with a fully engaged crowd. I’ve heard it hundreds of times and I still get chills. Truly a masterwork.
I knew I recognized his name - he was in The Committments.
Apparently he was a renowned artist apart from that, but that’s how I knew him.
I’m honestly surprised by how little traction this thread has gotten. I guess he was more niche than I thought. So that seems like a good excuse to post more links to great Glen Hansard songs and performances, like this one:
I rarely care about the Oscar for best original song, but I remember super cheering for Falling Slowly and when it won, I cheered. I was glad for them so much.
Sad news. So sudden and tragic, he has a small child at home.
I loved The Commitments, and played that soundtrack album so much. I’ll have to cue it up here this afternoon. Godspeed, Glen.
Everyone who seems to have mentioned this (including friends on facebook), only ever seem to reference his solo work, his band, The Frames was quite successful in Ireland, but not so much elsewhere but was excellent. We saw him in a small gig in Birmingham, and I was barely six feet from him performing.
This is the opening song in one of the classic albums from them: Perfect Opening LIne, I got into them when I lived in Cork. What remains sad is so few people have heard of them.
I got into him after hearing an interview with him on the radio. Funny, engaging and intelligent. Then he sang a few songs. Beautiful Irish tenor voice. Loved his version of Into the Mystic. He became close friends with Eddie Vedder and opened often for Pearl Jam.
Eh. I liked the movie and bits of the music, but his relationship to the very young Markéta Irglová always skeeved me out, and it’s unsurprising to read Neko Case ranting about him. (the Frames opened for New Pornographers in 2002)
Yeah, I just saw a link to Neko’s post in a reddit thread, including the claim that Reddit admins have been agressively deleting threads pointing out his long history of problematic behavior.
You know, I was going to write a post in defense of the man, because I’ve seen a LOT of social media posts describing all the good things he’s done in his life and career, but what do I know? Maybe he was terrible.
I do know that Markéta Irglová herself had no problems with him and had a decades-long collaboration with him that resulted in some beautiful music. So I’ll still listen and enjoy it.
I always remember that film as two people who seemed to have partners (inferred), kind of wanting to be together and it would never work for multiple reasons. But it’s been a while, so might be misremembering. However, I didn’t know she was 12 when he met her until now…
The allegations against him is also news to me though, don’t know who Neko Case is either, so was unlikely to know.
Sometimes some people with talent aren’t as famous because of their own behaviour…