Review: Sean Harkness Shines Brighter Than The Sun In JUST ME at Don't Tell Mama

The room was quiet.  Nobody responded to the question - everyone remained silent.  Sean Harkness had his answer. And the answer was no.  The question?

“Is there anyone here who doesn’t know me?”

Nope.  Everyone knew the man standing center stage in Kelly Wohlford’s spotlight.  The entire audience in The Brick Room was made up of people who are either good friends, colleagues, or people who have met Sean, though they may not know him well.  It was a fine sight and a fabulous show of respect, having so many admired and admirable artists from the cabaret industry fill the room for this week's first performance of JUST ME, the new solo show from the gentle genius with the guitar strapped over his shoulder.

Most often, we all see Mr. Harkness on the stage offering support to some of the best artists of cabaret and concert.  We marvel at the fleetness of his fingers on the frets, we sigh at the sounds of the strings, and we respond rowdily to the results of his artistry and proficiency, all while he shares the stage with other artists.   But last night there was no band.  There was no singer at the center mic, stepping aside to give way to Sean’s solo.  There was just Sean.  There wasn’t even his band, The Usual Suspects.  There was just Sean.  And, as solo artists go, Sean Harkness is enough… and then some.

As casually as a friend says come in, sit down, make yourself at our house, Sean spent his seventy-five-minute show just chatting with the crowd.  And he remarked, at the start, that “this isn’t going to be polished,” but if this is what unpolished looks like, everyone needs to readjust their dials.  It was perfection.  It was perfection, probably because Sean Harkness wasn’t trying to be polished; he accepts that life isn’t perfect, and he simply lets things come up and land where they may.  The only thing is, in his hands, where things land is just this side of perfect.  And it isn't from practice, it isn’t from writing a great script, it isn’t from arduous labors at making it come off just right (and the worries that go with that) - it was perfect because of that ineffable quality that the stars have, the quality called ‘It’ that people have talked about, lo, these many years.  Sean Harkness has it.  Sean Harkness is it.  And he has and is It, completely.  

So let’s talk about the talk.  A man sits on a stool in light that segues from cool blues to hot pinks to warm reds, and he tells the stories.  He does this extemporaneously.  He isn’t straining his mind to stick to a script, and he isn’t saying, “um” or “uh” or “ah” or “you know” every few words.  He’s just telling the stories, as he would if you were in his home.  Stories about the great musicians with whom he has played.  Stories about the European adventures of his youth.  Stories about the jam sessions that put him on an album playing with a legendary musician of Japan.  Stories about his first time on a famous record label.  Stories about the perfect proposal.  Stories told with honesty and humility, with humor and candor, with imagery and imagination.  Not one of the stories is voluble, yet none of them are economic: they are the ideal length, they are supremely and properly orated, and they do, one and all, tell us who he is.  It is in the telling of the stories, not just the stories themselves, where we get to know Sean Harkness.

And then there is the music.  It would be a pleasure to just be in a room with Sean and his guitar(s) and his fingers, and that’s what most people are used to.  So there may be those who don’t know that Sean Harkness has a very pretty singing voice.  It’s the voice you think you will get from Sean Harkness.  If you’ve been in a room with him enough times, you start to get a feel for his personality, his sometimes dry, sometimes intellectual, but always cheeky wit, his overwhelming sense of the emotional, and his commitment to the composition.  Knowing even a little bit of these things should leave a person with a premonition of what his singing voice will be like.  That’s the voice.  That’s what you get.  It’s laid back but precise, it’s resplendent, open, and rich with texture, and it’s poised for the telling of the story.  As fast as the fingers are, that’s how cool the voice is, and I don’t mean cool of temperature - I mean cool of I don’t know if I wanna be that guy or be friends with that guy cool.  It’s the voice you imagined you would get.  When you take that voice and wrap it up with the musician’s intent and the artist’s integrity (and those stories!), you’ve got one heck of a set.  This isn’t an act and it isn’t a show - it’s a set.  And it needs to be seen.

It seems almost impossible to single out highlights in last night’s set, everything was so spectacular, with Harkness playing his unique arrangements of songs made famous by Boston (“Peace of Mind”) and The Doors (“People Are Strange”), with some surprising BeeGees (an amazing “How Deep Is Your Love”) and some blistering Beatles (an electrifying “A Hard Day’s Night”).  But (and this should come as no surprise) the most magnificent moments of the night were those when Sean was playing his own material.   “Bright Tomorrows” and a sublime “Summer Solstice” and a truly delicious “Kalahai Sunrise” are compositions filled with intricacies and emotions, bold imagery born out of the melodies and the execution of the music, but Harkness’s “Puesta del Sol” is a listening experience so visceral, so special as to be in the purest state possible - maybe sitting by a sea at sunset, atop a pristine snowy mountain, or even in the hand of god.  Last night, this was the emotional pinnacle of an evening of nothing but highs.

Each night of JUST ME, Harkness outlined for the crowd, will be different.  He has such a vast array of compositions (and stories) from which to build each show that he could easily do an entirely new set on each night that he performs.  That’s a promising piece of information, one that lends itself to dreamy visions of an ongoing residency for the gentleman - one has faith that each set would be replete with seats filled with people who already know him… but the seats should be filled with people who WANT to get to know him, too.  This is a man worth knowing and an artist worth hearing.  It’s a lucky thing he’ll be back at Don’t Tell Mama on July 27th at 4 pm.  I’m not sure what the summer day will be like outside, but there is a reasonable expectation that inside The Brick Room with Sean Harkness is going to be the coolest place in town.

Get tickets to Sean's July 27th show HERE.

Visit the Sean Harkness website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher