Irish singer Glen Hansard loved coming to Philadelphia. Here, he worked on an album for a year and shoveled snow for the first time.

Glen Hansard, the Irish singer-songwriter who fronted the Frames and won a best song Oscar for “Failing Slowly” from 2007 film Once, is being mourned worldwide after his death at 56 in a motorcycle crash in Dublin this week.

Bruce Springsteen paid tribute, saying Hansard was “always nothing but a great musician, a good friend and a generous and gracious man.” Ed Sheeran called him “an incredible human, an incredible force.” U2’s Bono said he was “A choir of angels in one man.”

Hansard’s loss is being felt particularly keenly in Philadelphia where he established deep connections in the music community in recent years.

Beginning in 2025, and continuing this past winter, Hansard spent weeks working on an album with producer Charlie Hall of the War On Drugs.

The sessions, which included Philly musicians such as guitarist Kevin Hanson, pianist Luke Carlos O’Reilly, and drummer Nazir Ebo, as well as Drugs bassist Dave Hartley and Wilco guitarist Nels Cline, were held at Elm Street Studios in Conshohocken, which is owned by Rob Hyman of the Hooters.

Last year, after meeting the Philly band Snacktime at the Newport Folk Festival, Hansard invited the group to join him days later at the Met Philly for a few songs. He then insisted they stay onstage for the entire show, during which he wore a Snacktime faux Sixers jersey.

Hansard’s Philadelphia story included gig at the Non-Commvention in 2015 when the singer, who began his career as a busker on the streets of Dublin, played World Cafe Live accompanied by two young violinists he saw playing for tips on Walnut Street.

He opened for Pearl Jam at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philly in 2024. His final performance in the city was in March in the upstairs Sanctuary at the First Unitarian Church.

“Unforgettable gig all around,” said promotor Jeffrey Ziga of R5 Productions. “The Church show was supposed to be a small and intimate thing before that new record came out and he was going to come back around. It’s so sad.”

Hall and Hansard met in 2023, when the War on Drugs played Eddie Vedder’s Ohana Festival in California.

“Glen came into my life like a tsunami of love and affection,” Hall said of Hansard, who was raised in the household of an alcoholic father and left home as a teenager to sing on the streets.

“My dad was quiet, angry, shut down,” Hansard told the New York Times in 2012, “so my thing is: I express everything that’s there. I want to get it all out.”

“We were just instantly friends,” Hall said. “He just led with total honesty and put himself out there. He was the most compassionate person I’ve ever known. He was just always concerned with those without.”

Hansard came to see Hall play a Los Angeles show in support of his solo album Invisible Ink, and later suggested they work on a record together.

“He said, ‘We can go anywhere you want,’” recalled Hall, who spoke on the phone while sitting on the stoop of the St. Alban’s Street house in the Devil’s Pocket neighborhood where Hansard would stay while in town.

“And I was like, ‘Come to Philly. It’s beautiful here, and you’re gonna love it.’ I just surrounded him with all my favorite people. And I knew instantly that what we were doing was special.”

Hansard first came to Elm Street to work Hall and his crew in March 2025 and then again in January this year.

“He was here for that biblical snowstorm,” said Hall and Hansard had never shoveled snow before. “He just took a shovel and was shoveling everybody’s stoops on St. Alban’s Street. It was just, ‘Oh my God, this is too funny’.”

Hyman didn’t play on the sessions at Elm Street, where much of the Eagles Philly Specials holiday music that Hall produced was made.

“I was like a fly on the wall,” Hyman said. “Glen came out, and Charlie bought in a bunch of musicians to experiment and jam.”

Hansard, who this year released the career spanning Don’t Settle collections, Transmissions East, Vol. 1 and Transmissions West, Vol. 2, had an abundance of creative ideas, Hyman said.

“Glen was constantly writing, and had a bag full of notes and songs. He’s just one of those guys who made everybody feel super important and interesting, and he himself was just non-stop storytelling. He had met everyone and done it all, but was just very down to earth.

“A rugged guy, but with a very sweet and friendly side. I’m just reading these tributes and everybody is saying these same things about him, and they’re all true. It’s the same guy we got to know and love.”

Cline, who has his own long history with Philadelphia, came to Conshohocken to work with Hansard. “What a marvelous experience it was,” he said in a Facebook post. “I’m pretty sure everyone who came into contact with this man felt his warmth, passion and massive talent. I sure did.”

For Hansard, who is survived by his wife Maire Saaritsa and their son Christy, 3, the holy trinity of songwriters was Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Van Morrison. His priceless pinch-me story about being invited to Morrison’s 50th birthday party is easily found on the internet.

Snacktime first met Hansard when its members were hanging around backstage at the Newport Folk in July 2025.

“We all had our horns out,” said sousaphonist Sam Gellerstein. “And Glen walked by and asked us if we knew Van Morrison’s ‘Into The Mystic.’”

They did.

“We hopped up with him. It went super well. So then he was like, ‘Hey, I’m playing Philly, let’s do it again. Here’s a handful of songs.’

And then he started sending me more and more. Basically after the set was over, we had improvised an entire set of music. We were making up arrangements as we went along. It was magical. You don’t often meet people in this industry that are so beautiful and generous and genuine.”

The music that Hansard made at Elm Street is essentially finished, Hall said, though when he spoke to the singer last weekend, Hansard was eager to return to do more recording.

“He loved it here,” said Hall. “I mean, he wanted to call [the album] Philadelphia, first of all. I don’t know if that’s what it will be. But that’s what he always called it.”

The album, which also includes vocal contributions from k.d. lang, Sharon Van Etten, and Rachel Goswell of Slowdive that were recorded remotely, “is devotional music,” Hall said. “It’s soulful and burning with a sort of quiet fire.”

It’s not clear when it will be released, but “it’s beautiful and I hope his fans get to hear it because he worked really hard on it.”

Hall is heartbroken at the loss of a friend and musical partner.

“But it’s everybody’s loss,” he said. “The thing about Glen is that he made everybody he came in contact with feel heard. So that connection that I feel with him is not unique. He made everybody feel that way.”

Glen Hansard’s funeral will be held at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland on Tuesday Aug. 4 at 1:30 p.m. That’s 8:30 a.m. Philadelphia time. it will be livestreamed at RIP.IE.