Entertainment Criticism

(S)well Seasoned

The Swell Season | Ryman Auditorium

I think it was probably a year ago now that I sat with two or three of my really good friends in a tiny art house cinema near Lincoln Center and inhaled the fresh breath of Irishy goodness that was the film Once. Listening to the intimate harmonies of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, I felt as though I were uncovering an undiscovered treasure mine – I wanted everyone else to be able to experience the beauty of their addictive acoustic ballads but I also (selfishly) wanted to keep them all for myself.

Fast forward a few months later and they had to go and win an Academy Award for their tune “Falling Slowly,” one of the strongest tracks on the soundtrack to the aforementioned film and their studio collaboration known as The Swell Season. So yeah, I guess a few more people know about them now… but I still like to think they are all my own.

The duo’s current tour does much to preserve this feeling of freshly discovered genius. There’s a palpable authenticity to their performance which I think comes primarily from their lack of pretense while on stage. Hansard’s meandering comments on topics as varied as the presidential election and the denizens of Nashville’s Broadway (which he likened to Hades for its level of noise pollution) were endearing and often humorous while Irglova’s more demure interjections were insightfully sincere. The bottom line is that these are just really good people who happen to make good music.

Perhaps the reason I feel like these two could be my BFFs is because they end up offering the most private thoughts of their hearts by the end of the majority of their songs. Hansard started things off with “Say It to Me Now,” a slow-burner from the point-of-view of a frustrated lover that was intensified by his choice to perform it at the foot of the stage, sans artificial amplification. The earnest lyric paints the portrait of a desperate heart: “Cause this is what you’ve waited for / Your chance to even up the score / And as these shadows fall on me now / I will somehow.” Hansard readied the crowd as his growling baritone echoed to the furthest rafters, announcing his arrival and readying us for the compelling evening to follow.

Irglova and the duo’s four-piece band joined Hansard on stage next, completing a trifecta of songs from the Once soundtrack including “All the Way Down” and “When Your Mind’s Made Up.” And let’s just go ahead and get this out there – Irglova probably rivals the proverbial button in terms of her level of cuteness. She may be but a quiet lass of only 20 years, but when she pours her soul into cuts like “I’ve Loved You Wrong,” you would swear the words were coming from the mouth of an individual with at least a few more decades under her belt. She definitely takes the back seat to Hansard in terms of showmanship, but that’s often the way things go with an artist and his muse. Which is not to say that the whole night was about the pair’s off-stage relationship (indeed, none of it was).

Next, Hansard kicked off his four-song solo set with the aggressive “Leave” along with a couple of new tunes, “What Happens When the Heart Just Stops” and “Backbroke.” The highlight of this segment, however, was his larger-than-life cover of Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks,” a soaring epic that explores the limits of devotion and commitment: “If I ventured in the slipstream / Between the viaduct of your dreams / Where immobile steel rims crack / And the ditch in the back roads stop / Could you find me? / Would you kiss-a my eyes?” By the time Hansard reached the first of what would be many crescendos, I could have sworn there was a full band backing him and his guitar due to the sheer decibel level that emanated from his wiry frame. White boy can wail.

The rest of the outfit returned for a few new songs including the appropriately titled “Happiness,” one of the many selections Hansard and Co. encouraged the crowd to join in on once the simple melody had been learned. Throughout the entire night, he and Irglova were both gracious and a bit in awe of performing in the hallowed hall of country music, so it was fitting that they closed their standard set with a bit of Hank Williams’ “Lost Highway.” They returned for a generous five song encore which featured “If You Want Me” (which “Mar” dedicated to all the ladies in the audience…but let’s not forget the boys need some lovin’ too) as well as “Blue Shoes,” an exquisite instrumental piece performed by their violinist. “People Get Ready” was the final song of the night, featuring an buoyant refrain that encouraged, “We’ve got all the time in the world / To make it right / We’ve got all the love in the world / To set it right.” Amen to that.

Pinpointing the magic of these two individuals would, in essence, be destroying it. They are what they are, and what they are is sublime. It never ceases to amaze me how some of the most heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, cry-your-soul-out music can be the most emotionally satisfying and, oddly, the most comforting. But that’s exactly where their music will take you. It will be interesting to see if their fresh material makes its way stateside in the form of a new record within the next few years or if their momentary blip on the radar was only a rare occurrence to happen, well, once (pun fully intended). I, for one, am rooting for the former.