Mickey Harte is a singer songwriter from Donegal in Ireland. He has been a mainstay of the Irish acoustic circuit over the past 10 years. From his formative years as a musician, playing in local bands he was always well regarded as an exceptional songwriter. Noted several times by national press and media for his capability, in RTE Television’s song writing contests in the early 1990’s and by Ireland’s largest music magazine ‘Hotpress’ in the later 90’s.

In 2003 Mickey Harte signed a major record deal with Sony Music UK Ltd., it also saw Mickey Harte being rewarded with having the biggest selling single of the year. In April 2003 “We’ve Got The World”, Mickey’s debut single shot straight into the No. 1 spot in the Irish charts and it remained there for 5 weeks going quadruple Platinum with sales of over 60,000 units.

Mickey Harte’s debut album entitled ‘Sometimes Right Sometimes Wrong’ was recorded in April of 2003 in London and released in July. Working on the album was well known producer Jon Kelly who had previously produced the likes of Paul McCartney, Prefab Sprout, Chris Rea, Kate Bush and The Beautiful South, to name but a few. This resulted in a unique blend of Mickey and Jon’s ideas and styles. Time would later show how well this blend would pay off. The album includes 6 of Mickey’s tracks and 4 other tracks written by Josh Ritter, The Undertones, Paul Brady, and Martin Brannigan and Keith Molloy. In July 2003 ‘Sometimes Right Sometimes Wrong’ hit the No.1 spot for three weeks on its release, with double platinum sales figures after only 5 weeks of release.

Mickey’s second single ‘Never Wanna Let You Down’ was more of a country roots affair. It entered the charts at No.2 remaining there for 3 weeks being denied the No.1 spot by the world success of Beyoncé’s hit single “ Crazy in love”. Mickey paid tribute to this by covering Beyoncé’s track and including it on Ray Darcy’s (Today FM) compilation album entitled “Even Better Than The Real Thing” which peaked in the Irish charts at No.1. Mickey’s third single released in November 2003 entitled “There must be love” entered the charts at No.8 adding to another top 10 success story to have to his collection.

In April, Mickey also represented Ireland in the 2003 Eurovision singing live to over 300 million viewers across the globe. In June Mickey took to the stage along with Westlife, LibertyX, Blue and Busted amongst others in front of a live audience of 85,000 people at the closing of the Special Olympics in Croke Park in Dublin and O2 in the Park in Dublin to over 80,000 people. In Total Mickey performed over 140 shows in 2003 to promote his debut album. Other highlights for Mickey in 2003 was being voted the best new development within music in Ireland by a public in a survey ran by Irelands National TV broadcasters RTE in December. Mickey finished 2003 on a high when he was awarded one of The Irish Independent People of the year awards.

In January 2004 Mickey started the year by being nominated for 2 Meteor awards in Ireland. In Late January Mickey traveled with his band to the Midem Festival in Cannes to perform some shows which has since led Mickey being picked up by Steven Garvan Management in the US and Michael Bisping of A.S.S. In Germany. In March Mickey and his band traveled to Germany, Holland and then to the US where they performed some shows that finished in Austin at the SXSW festival.

On returning to Ireland Mickey Harte parted company with music giants Sony. Inspired by the success of so many other Irish artists such as Damien Rice, the Frames and Gemma Hayes, Harte formed his own label Swerve Music Ltd and made a decision to take the independent route. His first independent release was recorded in Ireland with Swedish producer and co-writer Patrik Andren. The track a New way to Fly released in May 2004 went into the Irish charts at Number 14 receiving huge national airplay.

In July 2004 Mickey started demoing tracks for his eagerly anticipated 2nd album. Mickey went back to his roots working with long time friend Terry Mc Ginty in Valley studios in Donegal where together they started going throughnew song ideas that Mickey had being working on. Mickey started working with other producers and writers such as Pat O Donnell (The 4 of Us) Billy Farrell (Corrs and Westlife) songwriters Jack Tempchin (The Eagles, Glen Frey) Kieran Goss (Mary Black, Francis Black), Ollie Cole (Turn) and Swedish writers Urban Robertsson, Fredrick Norberg and Ulf Turesson.

In November 2004 Mickey traveled to Sweden and teamed up with Pontus Frisk and Lasse Morten whose success stories include Andreas Johnson and Eagle Eye Cherry. Pontus and Lasse started laying down tracks for Mickey’s second CD and brought some new musicians onboard to play on the album including Brady Blade on Drums (Dave Mattews, Emmylou Harris, Jewel, Steve Earle), Clare Kenny on Bass (Erytmics, Indigo Girls, Sinead O Conner) and Matelas on guitar (Eagle Eye Cherry). The album got off to a flying start with tracks like Wish you Well and Live and Learn getting the sound that they required. While recording the album Mickey didn't stop his touring in the UK and Europe. Mickey beleived that before the new album was to be released he needed to pick up a fan base in new territories.

Mickey started off 2005 in Holland performing with his band at the Eurosonic festival in Gronigen.This led to US agency Skyline Music offering to book Mickey for US. From Holland Mickey toured the UK with Grammy nominee Cindy Bullens. Mickey picked up where he left off recording his album but this time returning to Ireland to do it. Working with Gareth Mannix who in the past has worked with the Thrills and The Revs and Terry Mc Ginty the results have been amazing after only 2 weeks Mickey and his team decided to release one of the songs to radio in Ireland. The song Sound of the Summer is a story of Brian Wilson and his fight with overcoming the stresses of success. In July 2005 Sound of the Summer was released to radio and entered the national airplay charts at No.12 remaining in the charts for a further 8 weeks.

The success story of the single inspired Mickey with the confidence that he needed to finish the album. He felt that the album needed a more organic sound than the Swedish sound and that the album need to have the sound not unlike what had been achieved in Ireland with Sound of the Summer.

Mickey decided that he needed to finish the album back where he had originally started writing the demos. Returning to Donegal, Mickey surrounded himself with people that where familiar with both him and his music. Together with engineer Terry Mc Ginty and fellow Donegal musician Rory Gallagher of the Revs, he put the final touches to the album, entitled “Live and Learn”. The latest single “Wish U Well” goes to radio in September 2006 and this track was the first song that was recorded for the album in Sweden. Other tracks included on the album are, “Can’t let go”, the title track “Live and Learn” and the radio hit single “Sound Of The Summer”.

And so the story continues...