A Season On The Line Glen Hansard

• 1 Didn't He Ramble (88 kHz) 04:52
• 2 Way Back in The Way Back When (88 kHz) 04:02
• 3 Let Me In 03:46
• 4 Return 05:07
• Total Runtime 17:47

Info for A Season On The Line

A Season on the Line, the new EP from Glen Hansard, the celebrated principal songwriter and vocalist/guitarist for the influential Irish group The Frames. This EP follows Hansard’s Grammy-nominated (Best Folk Album) second solo outing Didn’t He Ramble, which was released last fall. During his worldwide tour in support of Didn’t He Ramble, two songs continued to appear in his set—“Didn’t He Ramble” and “Way Back in the Way Back When”—though neither were included on the recent album or on any official release. This is all part of Hansard’s creative process—honing songs in a live setting. Due to popular demand, Hansard included the two songs on the new EP.

Recorded at Chicago’s Electrical Audio Studios on a day off between shows and featuring his touring band, “Didn’t He Ramble” and “Way Back in the Way Back When” bristle with all the energy that made them staples of the live show. A Season on the Line is rounded out by the tracks “Let Me In” and “Return,” both of which are from the intimate recording sessions for Didn’t He Ramble.

Hansard is the celebrated principal songwriter and vocalist/guitarist for the influential Irish group The Frames. Whether busking the streets of Dublin, where he got his start, or headlining a gig, Hansard has garnered a reputation as an unparalleled frontman. Hansard is also one half of the acclaimed duo The Swell Season. In 2007, he and Czech songstress Markéta Irglová took home the Academy Award for Best Original Song for “Falling Slowly” off the Once soundtrack. In 2013, the Broadway adaptation, Once, The Musical, won eight Tony Awards including the top musical prize itself. His debut solo album Rhythm & Repose was released in 2012.

Please Note: Tracks 1 & 2 are 88 kHz, tracks 3 and 4 are 96 kHz.

Glen Hansard
With a host of real-life songs and lilting vocals that reflect a passion for his influences (particularly Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, and Bob Dylan), Glen Hansard is best known for his work with the Frames and the Swell Season. Born to a working-class Dublin family during the spring of 1970, he left school at age 13 in search of making music his career. He began busking in the streets of Dublin, laying the groundwork for his engaging stage persona and, ironically, mimicking the plot line of Once, the movie that would later make him a star in multiple countries. By his late teens, Hansard had recorded his first demo with the help of his Mum, who'd lent him some money for the project. One of the 50 tapes he pressed landed in the hands of Island Records' Denny Cordell, a former producer who'd previously helped bring Tom Petty and Joe Cocker to the Island roster. Upon a meeting at Cordell's flat, the 17-year-old Hansard also met Ron Wood, Marianne Faithfull, and Stewart Copeland. The meeting, to say the least, left a lasting impression on Hansard, and in the end, Cordell signed him with the approval of Island founder Chris Blackwell.

From there, Hansard quickly gathered a group of fellow buskers and formed the Frames. Unfortunately, quick accolades proved daunting for Hansard and the Frames, whose grunge-influenced release Another Love Song came and went without selling much. Island Records responded by dropping the group. To distract himself from the disappointment, Hansard took on the role of Outspan Foster, a guitarist in the famed Alan Parker film The Commitments. He would later admit that he shouldn't have taken the role, as it merely placated his struggle with making music. But a trip to New York gave Hansard the space and time to dream it all up again, and with a newfound focus, he wrote the guitar-blazing anthem "Revelate" and "Say It to Me Now." Both songs eventually landed on the Frames' proper debut album, Fitzcarraldo, which was released in 1996 and helped make the Frames a popular group in Ireland.

Over the next decade, Hansard and the Frames continued releasing albums while also becoming one of Ireland's finest live acts. In 2003, Hansard played host to Other Voices: Songs from a Room, a popular television show featuring Ireland's best in new music. Three years later, while the Frames readied the release of their sixth effort, The Cost, Hansard unveiled a new side project called the Swell Season. The acoustic-based group featured his collaborations with Czech songstress Markéta Irglová. He and Irglová also appeared as working-class immigrants in the Irish movie Once, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and won an Oscar later that year. Thanks to the movie's success (not to mention its popular soundtrack, Once: Music from the Motion Picture, which featured the band's music), the Swell Season became a popular act in Ireland and abroad, leading to the release of a mature sophomore album in 2009. 2012's Anti-released Rhythm and Repose, the solo debut from Hansard, was produced by Thomas Bartlett (the National, Antony & the Johnsons) and inspired by the singer/songwriter's year-and-a-half spent as a denizen of New York City. Later in 2012 Hansard's track "Take the Heartland" appeared on the Hunger Games soundtrack, and the following year he recorded a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Drive All Night" with Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, which was included on an Anti-issued EP of same name in November in aid of music education charity Little Kids Rock.

This album contains no booklet.