Emily Scott Robinson Shares Video for 'Cast Iron Heart' Featuring John Paul White and filmed in Muscle Shoals

On the eve of the release of her fifth album, Appalachia, Emily Scott Robinson lets us have one more cheeky dip at the crudité platter before the guests arrive, and what a deliciously sumptuous mouthful of a song it is.

Featuring former member of Grammy Award-winning duo the Civil Wars, John Paul White, 'Cast Iron Heart' is a beautiful testament to the timelessness of love, ageing and loss and all the ways that love holds power through every chapter of our lives.

"So many love songs are written about young, sweet, and untested love," shares Emily Scott Robinson about the song. "I went through a divorce in 2021 and many of my ideas about who I am got ground to dust. Grief does that. Aging and loss should change us. I'm getting re-married next year and my fiancé went through a divorce around the same time as I did. We fell in love in the middle of a stormy sea of change and loss in both our lives, and we're learning what deep love and true partnership asks of us."

"I wrote 'Cast Iron Heart' as a celebration of that kind of love," she explains. "I want this to be a song people play at their 40th wedding anniversary or their second wedding. My friend John Paul White sings on this song and his gorgeous voice has such depth and gravitas."

"Got left out rustin’ in the rain / Weathered a whole world of pain,"Emily Scott Robinson sings in the opening verse. "But with a little love it’ll shine like new / I give my cast iron heart to you."

"I am not a brand new thing / Got a lotta salt and seasoning," John Paul White adds, before their voices join forces in the chorus. "People think we’re past our prime but I say we got here just in time."

We know it's only January and there's a lot of 2026 still to go, but it's unlikely you'll hear a more beautiful country duet this year. Holler is excited to be premiering its equally mesmerising video, filmed it in Muscle Shoals along with John Paul White.

Watch the video for 'Cast Iron Heart' below

Taken from her highly anticipated new album, Appalachia, released on 30 January 30 via Oh Boy Records, 'Cast Iron Heart,' like the rest of the record, finds Robinson at her most fearless and tender, singing about love and loss, grief and hope, and the power of community in the face of devastation.

The 10-song collection, produced by Josh Kaufman (Grateful Dead, Anais Mitchell, Bonny Light Horseman) at Dreamland Recording Studios in upstate New York, marks Robinson’s third release on Oh Boy Records and her fifth album overall.

Over five days in the spring of 2025, she and Kaufman transformed Dreamland, a century-old church sanctuary tucked away near the Hudson River, into an ethereal recording space. The sanctuary’s creaking floors, cobwebbed windows, and natural reverb gave life to Robinson’s most expansive work to date.

Robinson’s roots run deep in North Carolina, where she first discovered her love for songwriting as a teenager, and with Appalachia, Robinson continues a career defined by songs that move people to tears and, more importantly, to hope.

“There’s this thing I do with every record I make,” she says. “I knit a prayer into it and ask for the songs to find their way to everyone who needs them. If my music can be of service in that way, then I’ve done my work.”

Appalachia is released on 30 January via Oh Boy Records