The Young Dubliners normally skirt around Utah this time of year. The Irish-rock band, which settled in Los Angeles, Calif., back in the mid 1990s, usually sets its sights on Jackson Hole, Wyo., or head up to Idaho.

“We like coming back to Utah in the spring, near St. Patrick’s Day,” said the band’s vocalist and guitarist Keith Roberts during an interview from his home with The Park Record. “But we got a call to do a show in Park City close to New Year’s Eve and we decided to take it.”

The Young Dubliners will play at Harry O’s on Dec. 29 for a pre-New Years Party. But will be back in the Salt Lake in March.

“I don’t think of Park City as Salt Lake,” Roberts said .”We wanted to do this show because playing in Park City this time of year is like playing in Vegas because people are coming to visit from everywhere.”

Roberts said the band bassist Brendan Holmes, guitarist Bob Boulding, fiddler/harpist Chas Waltz and percussionist Dave Ingraham has felt the punch of the economic slump like anyone.

“We have always tried to be on the road as much as possible,” said the Irish-born Roberts. “But it’s been tough this year. We found it hard to get booked for mid-week shows and we had to become a weekend warrior band, something we haven’t done in years.”

However, the future looks a little brighter, said Roberts.

“We’ve got a February-through-April tour that will take us all over America and over to Europe,” he said. “This will be the first time in a long while that we’ll be working that solidly. The past few years our tour usually starts the first part of March and ends on St. Patty’s day.”

This year, after the Young Dubliners play Reno, they are heading to Europe for a 20-date run.

“We’ll play 10 days in Dublin and 10 days in Denmark,” Roberts said. “And then we return to the U.S. and play Las Vegas. So it will be a full circle of wackiness.”

Although the band is playing Park City two nights before New Year’s Eve, Roberts said the band is planning to go all out.

“During the holidays, people are in a more jovial mood.” he said. “Last year, we took New Year’s Eve off and it was weird. I realized I didn’t know what to do with myself because it’s always been a work night for me. I’m definitely better at working on New Year’s Eve than celebrating. So it feels good to be on the road this year.”

After the current tour, the Young Dubliners will regroup and go over their plans, Roberts said.

“We have three big things we want to look at,” he said. “First, we went to record a definitive live album that captures where the band is at this point in our career. Secondly, we want to release a ‘Best of’ collection CD, but we want to give it a twist, like rerecording new versions of the songs.

“We’re beginning to feel like the elder-gentlemen of Celtic rock. So it might be time for that CD.”

Lastly the band is beginning to write songs in anticipation of recording a brand new CD.

“I’ve built an extension on my house in Los Angeles just for that reason,” Roberts said. “The minute I come into this room, I feel like getting creative again.”

Whether the band records a new CD or releases a “Best of” collection, Roberts said no record label would be involved.

“We may be able to finally release something on our own,” he said. “Since we’ve been in the business for so long, there’s nothing a label can do for us that we can’t do for ourselves at this point.

“The only difference is when we release an album through a label, we get 14 percent of the money and when we sell an album we did ourselves, we get 100 percent.”

The Young Dubliners will play Harry O’s, 427 Main Street, on Wednesday, Dec. 29, at 9 p.m. Tickets are $25 and available at www.harryos-pc.com (435) 776-3050.