Jack O’Rourke: “This is my ‘Baooshka’ song”
Acclaimed Cork singer-songwriter Jack O’Rourke has returned with a powerful new single, putting a three-year hiatus firmly behind him.
His first solo release since 2023, new track ‘Samhain’ marks a fresh chapter for the Leeside artist as he continues his exploration of the wildness of love, nature, and healing within a changing world.
The single features fiddles, synth, organ, and steel guitars atop Ronettesesque drums, as O’Rourke reminisces on childhood Halloweens: “I’m Dunkin’ for apples, red shiny one evades me. Head under water, biting these coins, I’m bobbing for you.”
The single is his first release since 2023’s ‘Uaigneas’ which followed his 2021 critically acclaimed album, ‘Wild Place’.
‘Samhain’ explores a profound duality at the heart of the 31 October tradition: a night built around masks, mystery, and disguise, brought to life with the help of Áine Delaney (The National, The Staves, Leif Volebekk) on string arrangement.
For O’Rourke, the song inhabits a space between familiarity and enigma, where the person we present to the world meets the self that exists beneath the surface. The traditions of Samhain and Halloween become more than a celebration of the liminal; they become a metaphor for identity and the freedom that can come from becoming someone else for a night.
“In a way, this is my ‘Babooshka’ song,” says O’Rourke.
“There’s something a little more dramatic and mysterious about it. It’s me slightly getting in touch with my inner Stevie Nicks and Kate Bush but it still feels very much like me!
“I wanted this release to feel a little different sonically - richer and fuller than ‘Wild Place’, but still with the voice and piano at the nucleus,”
“I’d been listening to a lot of Cohen, Waits, and Emmylou Harris’s seminal ‘Wrecking Ball’, so there’s an Americana thread running through it. I asked Áine Delaney to bring some of that eerie, cinematic quality of Bobbie Gentry’s ‘Ode to Billie Joe’ into the strings. The chord progressions are made to feel both ethereal and earthy.”
Often found hunched around a piano, O’Rourke has earned a place as one of the most captivating artists to come out of Cork over the past ten years.
With a style deeply rooted in the traditions of folk, blues, and parlour ballads, O’Rourke is renowned as a subtle yet intense performer, with a rich baritone voice capable of ethereal falsetto.
His live shows are revered here on Leeside and beyond, and although he has no gigs lined up at the moment, keep an eye out for upcoming shows as they are not to be missed.