Glen Hansard at the Stone Pony

GLEN HANSARD
DON’T SETTLE
plus special guest Margaret Glaspy

Glen Hansard has announced his sixth solo album Don’t Settle – Transmissions East & West, an expansive collection featuring live reinterpretations of some of his most loved songs from across his solo career, as well as his work as the frontman of The Frames and half of the Oscar-winning duo The Swell Season. Friday April 24th, 2026 will see 10 of these tracks released first as Transmissions East (Vol. 1). Hansard also shared his new version of “Didn’t He Ramble” from Vol. 1 alongside a live performance video filmed at Berlin’s historic Funkhaus during recording. About the song, he explained:

“Our local bar was The Ramble Inn. My father spent most of his waking and sometimes sleeping hours in there…he’d ramble in and stumble out. I wrote this song after he passed at the fair young age of 62. The kind of tribute song he would have approved of. My father was a proud man. Loved his family and his drink in equal measure. My father showed his love shoulder to shoulder, not face to face. He drove The Frames amps and instruments around for years. Rarely staying for the show. But always there to load out the gear with the band afterward. I loved him very much and wanted to write him a tribute song he’d enjoy. I raise my voice, and a glass to Jemo Hansard.”

Hansard and his band recorded Don’t Settle – Transmissions East & West over two nights in April 2025 in front of a dedicated audience at Funkhaus–an expansive former East German radio facility–and in many ways, it encapsulates multiple things at once: a career retrospective opus, a ‘Best Of’ collection, a live record, and a new studio album.

The inspiration for Don+t Settle – Transmissions East & West came from a memorable rain-soaked outdoor performance at Zuiderparktheater in The Hague in summer 2024, when Hansard invited audience members onstage during a storm, creating an impromptu communal experience that would help to shape the record’s concept. Transmissions East (Vol. 1) is the first release in a two-volume set with the 2nd, Transmissions West (Vol. 2), appearing later this year.

Both volumes feature no vocal overdubs, second takes, autotune, or editing–brilliantly showcasing the breadth of Hansard’s talents and songwriting. In all, Don’t Settle – Transmissions East & West feels like an important demarcation point in an already storied career, with Hansard looking backwards within his creative path while he moves forward–‘transmissions’ both from his past and to his future.