Minnie Driver and The Swell Season in Concert

July 27, 2007, 2:29 PM

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Though still best known as an Oscar-nominated actress in films such as Good Will Hunting, Minnie Driver continues to make inroads as a musician. Driver will headline a concert from WXPN and World Cafe Live in Philadelphia on Friday at noon ET; Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova will open the show.

After touring extensively to support her 2004 debut Everything I've Got in My Pocket, Driver has toured Europe and the U.S. extensively, in the process converting once-skeptical fans. Her new album, Seastories, should advance that cause in a big way: Its appealing mixture of bluesy soul and chamber-pop features collaborations with Ryan Adams and Liz Phair, among others.

Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova never set out to make a record together: The two had toured Europe together on and off, but that was mostly to provide a break from Hansard's long-running main band, The Frames. Then the two were approached to record a pair of songs for a film — and given four days in the studio, which they spent recording enough material for a full album, complete with the accompaniment of strings.

Not only did they make a great record — last year's breathtakingly sweet The Swell Season — but they also wound up making a great movie. Though initially seen as mere musical contributors, Hansard and Irglova were ultimately cast as the leads in Once. A surprise box-office hit that's been almost universally hailed by critics, Once has done what 15 years in The Frames couldn't do for Hansard: make him a star in America.