Between Two Shores Glen Hansard

• 1 Roll On Slow 03:26
• 2 Why Woman 03:03
• 3 Wheels on Fire 04:02
• 4 Wreckless Heart 04:13
• 5 Movin' On 05:15
• 6 Setting Forth 05:04
• 7 Lucky Man 04:47
• 8 One Of Us Must Lose 03:28
• 9 Your Heart's Not In It 05:03
• 10 Time Will Be The Healer 04:26
• Total Runtime 42:47

Info for Between Two Shores

Following up 2015’s GRAMMY nominated Didn’t He Ramble, and his 2012 solo debut Rhythm and Repose, the ten-track collection was produced by Hansard himself for the first time. The culmination of more than six years of writing and recording, Between Two Shores came together in only a matter of weeks.

This past March, Hansard booked himself time at Black Box Studios in France with the original idea of taking inventory of his songbook. Working again with former Frames bandmate and producer David Odlum, Hansard was in search of a direction for his next record. As he trove through his previous sessions, various ideas and home recordings, a sketch of an unplanned record began to take shape.

The aptly titled “Setting Forth” became the catalyst for the direction Hansard hoped to achieve with Between Two Shores. Recorded with drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade and members of his Fellowship Band the song tackles themes of self-doubt in a time when it’s impossible not to be riddled with uncertainty. The album’s lead track “Time Will be the Healer” is a hopeful plea to a forlorn lover that also speaks to the way for-ward in the current social climate. Indeed, it would be impossible not to in some way address the politics of the day, which Hansard does in “Wheels on Fire” and its refrain of “We will overcome!”

While the record truly came together in France, Between Two Shores features material captured in New York and Chicago with a revolving cast of musicians. In addition to Blade, the record also features Thomas Bartlett, Brad Albetta and Rob Moose who ap-peared on much of Rhythm and Repose. However it’s Glen’s touring band - Joseph Doyle, Rob Bochnik, Graham Hopkins, Justin Carroll, Michael Buckley, Ronan Dooney and Curtis Fowlkes - that feature most prominently and take center stage on tracks like the upbeat E Street shuffle of “Roll On Slow” and the Van-tastic “Why Woman.”

The album’s title comes from Hansards ongoing love of sailing and the sea. When one is equal distance between their starting point and their destination they are in essence “between two shores.” A less than ideal time to wonder whether you should turn back or continue on, but a thought that inevitably rears its head.

With Between Two Shores Hansard has managed to capture that feeling of the big soul-ful sound of his large touring band while still retaining the intimate introspective nature of his acoustic shows. To which way the wind will blow on his next record remains to be seen.

Hansard is a founding member of The Frames who celebrated 25 years as a band in 2015. He is one half of The Swell Season, which also features pianist Marketa Irglova. Together in 2007 they wrote the music for and starred in the movie Once. The song “Falling Slowly” from the film was awarded the Academy Award for Best Original song. In 2013 the film was adapted for Broadway as Once, The Musical, winning eight Tony Awards including the top musical prize itself and an Olivier award in London for out-standing achievement in music.

Glen Hansard, vocals, guitar

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.