With his newest album ‘A Song, A Story Told’, Robin James Hurt continues his lifelong conversation with Irish music, one that fuses reverence and rebellion in equal measure. This is folk stripped into a raw, analogue love letter to craft, connection, and the ghosts of home. Recorded on four- and eight-track cassette, it hums with imperfection, but that’s precisely its charm.
At its core, this album is a collaboration between Hurt and Dublin poet Tony Floyd Kenna, a pairing that bridges two worlds. Kenna’s pen gives language to longing, while Hurt’s guitar wraps those words in melody and motion. Together, they’ve conjured something timeless: storytelling as communion.
‘Take Me Home’, the song that started it all, is a rousing anthem of exile and return. It’s the kind of tune that belongs both in a smoky pub and beneath the stars on a long road back to where it all began. Its chorus swells with bittersweet triumph, delivering a reminder that the ache of distance can still sound like hope when sung loud enough.
Elsewhere, opener ‘Hey Mary (Play a Song for Me)’ captures the joyous chaos of street music, while ‘Room Full of Music’ leans on rhythm and shares a reminder of why we gather and why we sing.
There’s echoes of Sinéad O’Connor’s spirit, Finbar Furey’s heart, and The Chieftains’ legacy, but Hurt’s voice is resolutely his own. Warm, honest, and unafraid of its scars, ‘A Song, A Story Told’ is folk music at its most human.
