In Concert
Keith Harkin
When: Today, 7 p.m. (early show)
Where: Lucky Bar
Tickets: $22.50 at Lyle’s Place, Ditch Records and ticketweb.ca
For singer-songwriter Keith Harkin, the difference between touring as a solo artist and touring with the six-member vocal group Celtic Thunder is like two sides of the same coin.
In both cases, the 26-year-old Harkin sings a selection of pop songs — some originals, some covers — with a clear, soulful delivery. The big distinction between touring on his own and with the Irish heartthrobs is the amount of behind-the-scenes work Harkin is expected to handle when he is the headliner.
“We’re doing everything at the moment,” Harkin said of the solo tour that brings him and bandmate Dave Bakey (who is also the guitarist for Celtic Thunder) to Lucky Bar for a performance tonight.
“We’re doing the driving, we’re the roadies. I’m tour-managing, booking gigs, booking hotels. Not only that, I’m the singer.”
His current life is quite a bit removed from the tour buses and first-class treatment Harkin receives when he tours in Celtic Thunder, his primary gig as an entertainer since 2007.
“I’m actually looking forward to getting back on the road with Celtic Thunder,” Harkin joked. “You get everything done for you, and don’t have to do much more than sing. Singing is the easy part.”
Harkin, who was raised in the Northern Ireland city of Derry, has been singing since he was four. He was cast into a role with the Celtic Thunder touring show when he was just 20, though at that point, he was already a veteran of numerous tours on his own.
Though he first toured when he was 17, and has been a part of 10 studio albums by Celtic Thunder, he didn’t release his solo debut until late last year. Having waited so long to put his name on something, Harkin said he wanted to nail every aspect of his self-titled recording.
He had some help in the form of Victoria native David Foster, who served as the album’s executive producer. Foster, who made Harkin his first signing after taking the helm as chairman of Verve Records, trusted the 26-year-old implicitly — enough that Harkin eventually received a writing credit on five of the album’s 12 songs.
He has a similar set-up in Celtic Thunder, it would appear. “I just do my own thing in Celtic Thunder. Sharon [Browne, creator and executive producer of the group] doesn’t really pigeonhole me into doing anything because she knows that’s not how to get the best out of me. They let me have free range.”
Harkin has all the freedom he could want as he pilots a van across North America with Bakey by his side. Once their tour of Canada winds down later this month, Harkin has a short break before donning his Celtic Thunder hat once again.
He and Bakey and the rest of Celtic Thunder will be back in Victoria on Sept. 8 for a performance at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. Between now and then, there’s plenty of work left to do, Harkin said.
“We have done 12,000 miles in this van in the last five or six weeks,” he said, speaking with an exhausted tone befitting of someone who has been on the road since August.
“And we’ve got another 15,000 [miles] to do.”
