The Glen Hansard “Celebration of Life” at Transparent Clinch Gallery, Aug. 7, ended with a group version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Drive All Night.”
“He loved Asbury Park … and he kept coming back,” said Danny Clinch of the late Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard at an Aug. 7 “Celebration of Life” concert at Asbury Park’s Transparent Clinch Gallery that you can watch below.
At the nearly three-hour event, artists such as Nicole Atkins, Emily Grove, Jackson Pines, Steve Reilly and longtime Asbury Jukes keyboardist Jeff Kazee offered intense, deeply emotional performances of songs written by or associated with Hansard (who died on July 29, at the age of 56). Everyone joined together for a closing version of Bruce Springsteen’s “Drive All Night,” which Hansard covered as the title track of a 2013 EP.
Danny Clinch’s photo of Glen Hansard on the cover of “Didn’t He Ramble.”
Gallery owner Clinch is a rock photographer who knew Hansard well, and took the photo on the cover of Hansard’s 2015 album Didn’t He Ramble. Clinch hosted the show, sang lead on three songs (including “Drive All Night,” which also featured Reilly and Jackson Pines’ Joe Makoviecki), and played harmonica and/or sang backing vocals for several artists.
Clinch and many of the other musicians talked about their personal encounters with Hansard in Asbury Park or elsewhere, and the impact his music had on them.
“I just want to say that Glen really lifted people up, and every experience I had, or was around him … all he did was lift people up,” said Michael Kravetsky. “If everybody here can kind of do that … lifting people up rather than putting people down … the world will be a better place.”
Rachel Ana Dobken said of one of the songs she performed, “My Little Ruin,” “it almost feels like a conversation with yourself, but it also feels like Glen is talking to you and being like, ‘Hey, you know what? It’s okay. I got you.’ It’s exactly what you would want a friend, essentially, to say to you. A lot of his music feels that way, which is a really unique, nice thing.”
Here is the show’s setlist and, below it, the video.
“Love Don’t Leave Me Waiting,” Jeff Kazee
“You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere,” Madhavi Devi with Danny Clinch
“The Song of Good Hope,” Levy Okun
“My Little Ruin,” Rachel Ana Dobken with Michael Kravetsky and Danny Clinch
“Say It to Me Now,” Rachel Ana Dobken with Michael Kravetsky
“Just to Be the One,” Johnny Nameless with Susu Pianchupattana
“Star Star,” Pam Flores with Levy Okun
“Ghost,” Emily Grove
“Falling Slowly,” Danny Clinch with Emily Grove
“City by the Sea,” Chris Kasper with Kiley Ryan and Danny Clinch
“Interference,” Chris Kasper with Kiley Ryan
“What Happens When the Heart Just Stops,” Nicole Atkins
“My City of Ruins,” Jack West
“Low Rising,” Jackson Pines (Joe Makoviecki, James Black) with Rachel Ana Dobken
“Wedding Ring,” Danny Clinch with Jackson Pines (Joe Makoviecki, James Black) and Rachel Ana Dobken
“The Auld Triangle,” Steve Reilly
“The Parting Glass,” Steve Reilly
“This Gift,” Steve Reilly
“Drive All Night,” Danny Clinch, Steve Reilly, Joe Makoviecki & Ensemble
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