James O’Hurley returns on 26 June 2026 with A Beggars Belief, a four-track live acoustic EP that captures a more intimate side of his songwriting while continuing the momentum that has built steadily since his 2025 debut album, A Certain Stranger.
Released alongside the EP is “Roulette”, a previously unreleased track that stands as the project’s lead single and emotional centerpiece.
A singer-songwriter who naturally blurs the lines between folk, blues and rock, James strips things back on A Beggars Belief and leans into the warmth and honesty of an acoustic studio performance. It is a release that feels unforced and direct: four songs chosen simply because they matter to him. Two of those tracks, “Helpless Hopeless” and “Roulette”, arrive here for the first time, while “Grace” and “Devil Don’t Knock Twice” reappear in live acoustic form.
Opening with a piano-led melancholy, “Roulette” sets a subtle but unmistakable sense of foreboding before James’s gravelly vocal pulls the song into sharper focus. There is a haunting tension running through it, carried by lyrics that speak for themselves: “Ace up my sleeve / Where we dance and sing, the roulette spins your way / And if you roll the dice / Let the master pay your price / If you risk it all, they’ll notice everything / And the house will always win.” It is this balance of restraint, weight and lyrical clarity that makes the track a natural standout.
Since the release of A Certain Stranger, James has only moved in one direction. What once could have been the point where he stepped away from music altogether has instead become the moment everything opened up. The songs have kept coming, the confidence has kept building, and with final recordings now underway for album two, A Beggars Belief arrives as both a marker of progress and a strong indication that there is much more still to come.
SOURCE: Official Bio
LINKS:
https://jamesohurley.com/
https://www.instagram.com/jamesohurley/
https://www.facebook.com/p/James-OHurley-61559155961934/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/5PPszwO5CjC0UoqK2sKCtL