The Swell Season Perform on CBS Saturday Morning: Saturday Sessions

08-04-2025

(CPR) The Swell Season-the beloved duo of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova-performed on CBS Saturday Morning: Saturday Sessions last weekend, playing three songs from their acclaimed first new album in 16 years, Forward.

Watch the band's (featuring bassist Joseph Doyle, drummer Piero Perelli, and additional guitarist Simon Good) gorgeous performances of "Stuck In Reverse," "People We Used To Be," and "Great Weight" now.

Released last month, Forward has been earning praise and support from NPR Music, CNN ('Hollywood Minute'), WNYC's All of It, Paste, American Songwriter, The A.V. Club, No Depression, All Music, Vinyl Emergency podcast, Songwriters On Process podcast, This Song Is Yours podcast, and WXPN's World Cafe, among many others.

The Swell Season recently wrapped the first leg of their Forward tour of the U.S. and Canada, and the tour will continue next month in St. Louis, MO, on September 9th. The run includes a September 19th stop at Los Angeles, CA's The Greek, and a full itinerary is below.

When 16 years have passed since the release of their beloved duo's previous album, 2009's Strict Joy, it might be expected that Hansard and Irglova would title a new collection of The Swell Season songs as something commemorative or reflective instead of the succinct Forward. But, as anyone who has followed their career will tell you, The Swell Season doesn't exactly do things the typical way. First formed by Hansard-then best known as the frontman of Irish rock band The Frames-and Czech pianist and singer Irglova in 2005, The Swell Season released a self-titled LP in 2006 before going on to star in and perform their songs in the film Once. Much-loved and critically praised, the movie catapulted them into the spotlight, and earned the duo the 2007 "Best Original Song" Academy Award for "Falling Slowly" before being adapted into a Tony-winning Broadway smash. Yet they have never spent much time looking back. So when the longtime friends decided amid their respective solo careers to officially reconvene for a handful of Swell Season shows in 2022, it led to not only a larger run of dates in 2023 but a recording session as well. A single, "The Answer Is Yes," encouraged the pair to converge again in Irglova's Iceland studio to write a new album in 2024, and from there, well, it seemed there was only one direction for The Swell Season to go. "It felt right to title the record 'Forward' because it's a reunion of sorts, but we're not going backwards," Irglova says. "Both of us have grown and changed; we're in different places and getting to know each other again as the new people we've become."