Tell Me A Story Old One

Set by a hearth with tea and a worn wooden chair pulled close, “Tell Me A Story Old One” is a tender conversation between a younger listener and an elder who carries hard-won memories. It leans into a core Irish folk tradition—storytelling as inheritance—where roads, hunger, music, and near-misses in love are kept alive by being spoken aloud and passed on. By the end, the narrator doesn’t just remember the tales; they begin to retell them, turning personal history into living song.

Tell Me A Story Old One Lyrics

Fire in the grate
Tea in a chipped old cup
You pull that wooden chair
A little closer up
Lines on your hands
Dance with the flames
“You want a tale
Mo chroí?
I’ll give it a name”

Tell me a story
Old one
Of love that was almost won
Of ships that turned from the storm
Of a kiss that never came
Tell me a story
Old one
’Til the embers all grow dim
I’ll carry every word you spin
And someday I’ll tell them again

You speak of a road
Worn by a thousand feet
Women with aching backs
Singing the hunger sweet
A boy with a fiddle
Playing his heart in two
“Child
He was stubborn
Much like you”

Tell me a story
Old one
Of love that was almost won
Of ships that turned from the storm
Of a kiss that never came
Tell me a story
Old one
’Til the embers all grow dim
I’ll carry every word you spin
And someday I’ll tell them again

Your voice turns soft
On the parts that still hurt
You laugh through the tears
Brush the dust from the dirt
“Every good story
Leaves a mark on your skin
Remember them kindly
When you begin” (oh)

Tell me a story
Old one
Of love that was almost won
Of ships that turned from the storm
Of a kiss that never came
Tell me a story
Old one
’Til the night gives way to rain
I’ll carry every word you spin
And live them
Not just say them

Fire in the grate
Dying to gentle blue
I whisper the opening line
And start it again
For you