Glen Hansard is passionate about connecting with a crowd. At the 2018 Newport Folk Festival, that crowd was hushed and he went deep. From the opening song, the Swell Season favorite "When Your Mind's Made Up," through more traditional Irish tunes with fiddler Rosie MacKenzie and Brendan Begley on accordion, Hansard's performance was enthralling. During "Her Mercy," Hansard was joined by The War and Treaty's Michael and Tonya Trotter to give the gift of hope to any in doubt.
Hansard ended his set with "Passing Through," a folk song written by Dick Blakeslee, popularized by Leonard Cohen and often sung by Pete Seeger. There's a line in the song that felt good to sing among friends: "Passing through, passing through / Sometimes happy, sometimes blue / I'm glad that I ran into you / Tell the people that you saw me passing through."
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