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It’s a ‘Swell Season’ in Milwaukee

Music from film ‘Once’ comes to Riverside

By Melissa Campbell

Fans of Irish folkster Damien Rice will feel right at home with Swell Season’s slow and lyrically driven music.

It has been quite a year for songsters Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová. The pair has seen their low-budget film “Once” become massively successful in the United States, even winning the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. The soundtrack, with songs written and performed by Hansard and Irglová, soared to the top of the Billboard charts, where it patiently stayed for some time. Their song, “Falling Slowly” also won the Oscar for best original song.

Life cannot get much better for the Swell Season, the band the two formed. Now they are bringing their immense talent and success to a sold-out show at the Riverside Theater on May 8.

Hansard, 38, has spent a longtime in the music business, most notably as the frontman for the Irish folk-rock band the Frames. Irglová, 20, a Czech-born, classically-trained musician, has been performing with Hansard since was just 13. Since the pair released their first album, “The Swell Season” in 2006, they have gone by the name when performing together. Hansard borrowed the title from his favorite 1975 novel by Czech author Josef Škvorecký.

Fans of Irish folkster Damien Rice will feel right at home with Swell Season’s slow and lyrically driven music. Hansard, who also plays guitar, and Irglová on piano fill the melodies with passion and intensity. On a few tracks, Hansard’s voice picks up powerful strains of violence (much like Rice) that contrasts nicely with Irglová’s soft lyrics.

The Swell Season has sold out a number of venues on their tour, including the Chicago Theatre, Radio City Music Hall and the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.

Swell Season just finished performing at Coachella on April 25 and will also be playing at Bonnaroo on June 13.

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