The music career of Michael Hurley, iconoclastic folk singer, started in a rural community in northern Bucks County. His recordings, including a new album that coincides with his 80th birthday, were chronicled by Grayson Haver Currin for The New York Times.

Hurley recalls early exposure to music. At five, he wrote his first song, a tune about an airplane. He continues to sing it today.

In his 20s, Hurley took his home-taught guitar skills to New York City, where folk music was taking hold in the early 1960s. Hurley lived with a group of friends, the “Bucks County Boys.”

His career had a hopscotch evolution over the next 20 years. His own label, Bellemeade Phonics, was his main creative outlet to the market, and most of his output was a blues-bluegrass hybrid.

As the new millennium dawned, found himself again gaining fans. This latest resurgence was part of a genre known as “freak-folk.”

Despite the fame — or lack of it —  Hurley remains pragmatic about his calling.

“I never thought of a career in music,” he said. “What I do is goof off. And try to get away with it.”

More on the career of Michael Hurley is at The New York Times.