That time Glen Hansard and I sang ballads at each other

Since I'm currently in rehearsals for the musical Once (at the Arts Club in Vancouver starting June 20th), I thought I'd share this blog post from a few years back.

April 16th 2013

And then you have one of those nights you just won’t forget.

I flew to NYC this weekend to open for the great Glen Hansard (The Frames; the Commitments; Once) at a small benefit show for the Rose F Kennedy Centre in Brooklyn. Playing the show was fun. Singing with Glen was fun.

Later, the few of us left went down the street to a bar a friend had kept open just for us. Glen told me the story of when he first saw his mate Jeff Buckley play in Dublin. Jeff downed an entire pint of Guinness in front of the unruly bar crowd before starting the first song, just to get them on his side. Apparently it worked.

Then I was trying to explain to Hansard who Stan Rogers was and the Canadian importance of Northwest Passage. He said, Just fucking sing it. I obliged and then he answered with an old Irish tune by Christy Moore. And so it went, back and forth. A cappella songs and stories with a true Irish gent until 5 am somewhere in the Lower East Side. And I laughed at New York as I was stumbling home because it was actually quiet and I could hear the birds singing.