On Glen Hansard, grace, and goodbyes

Glen Hansard died. I’ve been listening to and writing about him and his music for damn near 20 years, so this is a gut punch. A few years ago I wrote an essay for Cinema Sugar about how seeing Once in the theater in 2007 completely changed how I viewed movie musicals, and much more. It’s hard to convey how electrifying it was to see “Falling Slowly” or “When Your Mind’s Made Up” unfold before me for the first time, and how vital all of Glen’s music has remained for me ever since. Let this excerpt from the essay serve as my eulogy for a legendary artist gone far too soon: Once, directed by John Carney, is fairly easy to describe. An Irish busker (Glen Hansard) meets a young woman (Markéta Irglová) on the streets of Dublin and they grow close as they play music together, discuss their bruised loves, and inspire each other as they enter new phases of life. But such a tidy description belies the miles-deep emotional undercurrent that runs beneath this story and propels the main…