Biography

Founded in 2003, The High Grade Pats (HGPs) began as a group of longtime friends living around the city of Visalia, in the Central Valley of California. Their friendship is rooted in a brotherhood developed in their years of participating in the Society of Creative Anachronism (SCA) back to the early 80s. In the SCA, the HGPs would sword fight wearing full armor in mock medieval battles and celebrate their victories at nightly revels. It’s was during these revels, around the campfire, that the HGPs would sing old Irish songs together. In time HGPs put down their armor and swords (maybe not Guy) and picked up their instruments.

The HGPs are heavily Influenced by the Clancy Brothers, Dubliners, Pouges, Wolftones, and Gaelic Storm. They bring that Irish sound from pubs across the pond to the shores of Californ-i-a. The lads have a repertoire of over a 100 songs covering hundreds of years of Irish history going back as far as the 1500s, as well as a few originals in the Irish folk style. The HGPs have played various stages, such as the Cellar Door, Mother’s Tavern, Visalia Convention Center, Rawhide Stadium, Hanford Fox Theater, The Scottish Highlands Games, and various places in the Visalia, Fresno, and Central Coast areas.