Luke Halpin

Pegged as a “22 year old phenom” by the Orange County Weekly, Luke Halpin has been performing ever since his father handed him a mandolin and a Mel Bay book at the age of eight. Eight years old, singing “Grandma’s Feather Bed” in the family band, Luke was a huge hit with old ladies everywhere. By the time he reached puberty, he began to realize, cute wasn’t gonna be enough anymore. So he locked himself in the family motor home and, at the age of sixteen Luke emerged a self taught, finger burning, Fiddle/Mandolin/Guitar/Banjo playing monster. He continued to play with his folks, and to this day still makes the occasional guest appearance. He has since worked as a session musician and played with many of the best bands in Southern California. Border Radio, Christian Simmons and Michael Dart to name a few. Along the way, Luke competed in contests on all four of his instruments. He won many, and lost some...(darn those Nickel Creek Kids!)

In 2003, he was noticed by an exciting new band named Fanny Grace; winners of the KZLA song-writing contest. With Luke at their side, they went on to open for A-list stars everywhere: from Lone Star to Merle Haggard. After a few years of the craziness of Nashville and touring all over the country, Luke was drawn back to LA to take care of things at home. Little did he know that his most exciting musical project waited for him there. He hooked up with a talented female singer/songwriter/fiddler by the name of Stephanie Bettman in early 2007, when she hired him as her mandolin player. She quickly learned that not only was he a talented multi-instrumentalist, he was also a heartfelt and soulful singer/songwriter in his own right. Together they have started to light up the Southern California acoustic music scene, garnering praise from Music Connection Magazine all the way to Germany’s Country Jukebox and winning recognition in contests both locally and nationally including the Grand Prize in the 2008 Southern California Live Acoustic Music Competition.