ala piedmont. great pickin’ pat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFDKo0Tu2DU&feature=related
Fantastic! Did you ever play guitar and sing for Seamus Pat?
Patrick.
I would like to know this, too, Pat— did you do any guitar work (playing, that is) in Ireland, and did many know you were/are such a skilled guitarist and singer?
Pat was a fairly notable/notorious folk artist in the 60s. The guy dated Buffy Saint-Marie! We’re talking a regular piping Phil Ochs! Which is a reference that’ll probably mean less than nothing to you. But in the 60s if you kept tabs on the folk scene Pat’s name would be familiar enough, unless your brain was utterly frazzled from all the acid… 
I was just watching one of those clips hosted by Pete Seeger the other day, of the Fariñas. Also got a hold of some of Simon and Garfunkel’s albums, which I haven’t listened to in decades; in the middle of “Fakin’ It” on Bookends you hear a snippet of Lou Killen play the Redesdale Hornpipe, much popular with players of the NSP.
Séamus appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in '64, he was on an LP with whoever, Bukka White, the New Christy Minstrels, etc. So pipes weren’t the most obscure exotic instrument on Earth, if you were a dedicated folkie.
Folk to Irish Trad isn’t much of a leap, I was far more surprised to learn that SST records producer Spot has been playing Irish music in St Louis since the 80s. This guy worked with bands like Blag Flag, who were a big inspiration to Kurt Cobain, so there’s a connection between Kirk Lynch and Nirvana, huh.
OK guys you got me. Guitar and 5 string banjo were my first instruments. I started old time banjo when I was around 15 years old and I still play with Bruce Green, Don Pedi, Steve Millard and other old time musicians here in North Carolina. I haven’t played guitar very much in years but I still pick it up now and then.
I started going to Ireland in 1970 and continued every summer for years. I did play a little guitar for Seamus Ennis and a few others but not Irish music. They just wanted to hear some of my folk stuff so I obliged now and then.
I was introduced to the pipes by Liam O’Flynn in 1972 when I hired him as my opening act for a tour that I had lined up. We played gigs for a couple of months and had a grand time. I found a set of Rowsome pipes in a New York bar,and I sent Liam in with the money and to play the pipes for the woman who sold them to him for the grand sum of $225.00.
All the best,
Pat Sky
a portent of the then future?
Hi oleorezinator
You missed a few 
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvxi6xpOqtU]](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvxi6xpOqtU])
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJqo1cAYVdU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW3qQdrRZbo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY81Mzcj35o
David
Sigh… I wouldn’t mind paying $225.00 for a set of Rowesome pipes… or Taylor, for that matter…
Seems like a nice place to say a thankyou to Pat Sky.
I’ll set the scene. I am about twelve (28 now) and have been raiding
my fathers’ records in the attic for about two years now.
I’ve been through all the Beatles, Dylan, and Rolling Stones
and am in love with Dave Van Ronk, Mississippi John Hurt,
Patrick Sky. I was playing guitar, mandolin and banjo. Listening
to some Irish music but mostly John Renbourn and the Chieftans
to learn O carolan on the guitar and then:
there it is Seamus Ennis Forty Years of Irish Piping
never noticed it before in the back. I took out the liner notes which if I remember
were on a seperate sheet and read them Signed Patrick Sky and said to myself
Well if Patrick Sky says this guys good he must be worth listening to. I brought the
record downstairs and played it non stop.
So I owe you a big thanks (I think?) for starting me off down this murderous path
Oh and sometimes I sing Mahogany Row when I want to impress real old folkies
“Come to the meat market and get your fresh ham
it aint been inspected by old Uncle Sam
but some of the finest folks that ya know
are getting their cut down on Mahogany Row”
I had a similar experience. I am 50 and had a slew of folk stuff, including Pat (and Phil Ochs, Kevin), and walked into a record store in Kent, Ohio, when I was in my late teens. The guy behind the counter was playing Forty Years full blast, and I walked out with that record. A few years later I had a practice chanter and Pat’s book…
“And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for:
Mississippi John Hurt sings Gilbert and Sullivan…”
Thanks, Pat!
I want to thank Pat for sharing whisky, cigars, a few tunes and a handful of really dirty jokes at a Pub in Roswell, GA. in 2006… or was it 2005? I forget, I was kinda foggy at the time. 
Cheers Mr. Sky!
-Joseph.
another sighting. looking at some joni mitchell clips from the oscar brandt tv show
'let’s sing out!", there is pat sitting to joni’s side at the start and finsh of the song.
That’s $25.00 more than I paid for my Taylor set. And I sold my brother the Rowsome set for $200.00 but it didn’t have a chanter. The times they are a changin’.
For better or for worse, I guess we’ll have to wait and see. $200, sheesh! It’s almost enough to make me cry…but not quite.
Among the comments for the 1st clip: "wow the guys around her on stage look like deadbeats. "
The story behind that song’s conception is pretty funny too, apparently John Phillips was getting hammered with some other future rock stars (Stills, Young, etc) in 1963, they recorded the whole thing for posterity, including this song, improvised on the spot; John was puzzled years later when royalty checks started showing up for some song on a Judy Collins LP he had no memory of writing…
Kevin, great link on Spot. I had no idea. I grew up on that and other obscure stuff and it was great to read what Spot has been up to.