Sometimes Right, Sometimes Wrong

His talents as a songwriter of substance have long been flagged, not alone by his former Rock School mentors, but also by those in the industry privy to its inner workings. Having heard demos of his early material – and been mightily impressed – I was aware of the strength of Harte’s song pool, thus my expectations were a little like those of an anxious father in a maternity hospital waiting room: hoping for beauty in the extreme,but satisfied if everything was in full working order.

So it proves – in Mickey Harte we have a writer of significant talent, who takes his inspiration from the likes of Rodney Crowell, Ron Sexsmith and Josh Ritter, whose ‘The Right Time’, the album’s opener, is a peach replete with gorgeous violin and female backing vocals. And if he lacks an eye for lyrical detail, he scores heavily on mining the emotional landscape in a song like ‘Total Love’, with its plea of ”Give me the simple life”.

No doubt the pressure of deadlines was part of the reasoning for the inclusion of ‘The Island’ by Paul Brady and ‘Teenage Kicks’ from The Undertones, but the inclusion of two more originals might not have been such a bad idea. As it stands though, Sometimes Right, Sometimes Wrong is a respectable calling card.