Skelpin

Skelpin' is an Irish folk music group based in San Diego, California. They perform a fusion of Irish Music and Spanish Flamenco, with Middle-Eastern percussion. Skelpin' is also associated with the "Greening of the Gaslamp", a movement of increased Irish culture in the San Diego area. In 2003, 2004 and 2005 they were nominated for the San Diego Music Awards, in the category of World Music and have toured with this Irish Fusion globally.

In 2005 Skelpin performed for 3 months at Tokyo Disneyland, and returned to Tokyo in 2007 for the annual Irish Music Festival.

Tim Foley also wrote music and played uilleann pipes for the movie .

Aside from their venue performance schedule, Tim Foley and Patric Petrie can be seen live almost every Thursday night from 8-10pm at Matt Hensley's Flying Elephant Pub and Grill in Carlsbad, CA, as well as at The Blarney Stone pub in Clairemont in San Diego on select Saturday nights from 9pm to 1am.

In addition to their local shows and upcoming big events, Skelpin is also finishing up their 3rd album. Tenatively titled "The Singing Bird," the album features crowd-grabbing new songs and driving instrumentals written by the band, with special guests including a member of Flogging Molly.

tolen pipes

On September 6, 2008, Tim Foley reported that his set of uilleann pipes were stolen from his car while he was house-sitting in La Jolla, California. Foley had kept them in his car overnight due to a late-night return from a show, which is something he never does. He reported his car window being smashed, and a guitar amp was stolen along with the pipes, which were kept in a hard-shell-guitar-like case.

Being a devastating loss and an extremely difficult replacement-although not hard to notice since there are very few of them in southern California, Foley urges fellow musicians and fans to keep their eyes open at shows, pawnshops, local classifieds, and even a shady person's garage. A full replacement of such pipes costs a lot of money (at least $5000), and can take months or even years to produce a replacement.

Skelpin' will continue to tour, perform shows, and work on their upcoming album, with Foley using a borrowed chanter (the part of the full set that makes the melody), in addition to playing guitar and saxophone.

Current members

* Tim Foley: vocals, guitar, uilleann pipes, saxophone, wind instruments
* Patric Petrie: vocals, fiddle
* David Maldonado: vocals, flamenco guitar, bass, banjo, mandolin
* Hector Maldonado: vocals, bass, guitar
* Rowshan Dowlatabadi: accordion
* John Martin: vocals, percussion

Guest members

* Matt Hensley: accordion

Discography

* Whiskey Before Breakfast (2002)
* Rua Rojo (2005)
* The Singin' Bird (2008)

External links

* [http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2008/sep/24/blurt2/ Tough Blow - San Diego Reader] Tim Foley's Pipes Stolen
* [http://www.skelpin.com skelpin.com] The band's regularly updated homepage.
* [http://www.myspace.com/skelpin Skelpin on MySpace]
* [http://sdmusicawards.com/ sdmusicawards.com] The San Diego Music Awards.
* [http://www.hensleyspub.com/ Hensley's.com] Hensley's Flying Elephant Pub and Grill