RIP GLEN HANSARD

Irish musician and actor Glen Hansard died on July 29^th after a motorcycle accident. He was 56 years of age.

Glen was a talented songwriter and singer. When I told people about his passing, most didn’t know who he was. My knowledge of Glen is that he was a “busker” as a teenager on Grafton Street in Dublin. A busker is the fellow playing the guitar with their guitar case open on the sidewalk in front of them hoping you will drop a few dollars into it.

But beyond that, he was also an actor. He appeared in The Commitments (1991). It’s a great movie about a dysfunctional band whose members just couldn’t get along. One of the best opening lines ever in any movie. The narrator, in a voiceover, says, “In Dublin, you’re either in a band—or you’re in jail.”

Glen was also in one of my favorite movies, Once. This move is a great love story, has amazing music and has one of the best scenes you’ll see in any movie. One of the songs from the movie won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Original Song (“Falling Slowly”).

I am returning to Ireland later this year. I will return to Grafton Street and put a few dollars (I mean Euros) in the open guitar cases of the buskers. I’ll also visit the Phil Lynott statue featured in the movie. Phil was an Irish musician who fronted Thin Lizzie.

You may not know who Glen was but you certainly know Bruce Springsteen. Glen joined Bruce on stage during a Dublin concert for a duet of “Drive All Night”. You can see the video on YouTube.

And if you are a romantic person, you really should plan on getting together with your better half, your crush, a person you are courting, your high school sweetheart that you connected with at the reunion (only happened to one person I know) and watch Once.