Remembering Pete Sutherland: How the longtime performer left a legacy in Vermont music

Pete Sutherland, who worked with countless professional musicians and mentored just as many aspiring performers, died Wednesday after more than a decade spent fighting cancer. He was 71.

A leader of the state’s Americana/traditional-music scene, Sutherland was known for his storytelling ballads and mastery of the fiddle. He performed in The Clayfoot Strutters and led Pete’s Posse. He helped develop future generations of Vermont musicians with his work teaching in organizations such as Young Tradition Vermont.

Sutherland’s contemporaries posting on social media following his death wrote of his significance on the Vermont music scene.

“It’s hard to imagine Vermont without Pete Sutherland he was always there with fiddle in hand willing to pitch in and do whatever was needed to be done,” Hinesburg banjo player Rik Palieri wrote Thursday on Facebook. “From doing the small community dances to the big festivals, working with the old legends and with the young aspiring musicians, Pete was there. I know that today there are many here in Vermont and across the globe who are feeling his loss.”

Grace and gratitude

Tim Stickle of Burlington performed regularly with Sutherland for the past 15 years with the Appalachian Gap String Band and in less-structured old-time string sessions at Radio Bean. He told the Burlington Free Press in a phone conversation that he last saw Sutherland about a week before his death and that he died with the same grace and gratitude he exhibited throughout his life.

Stickle’s last performance with Sutherland came in July with the Appalachian Gap String Band at the Bread Loaf School of English in Ripton. As a musician, Stickle said, Sutherland focused on making everything sound better rather than rising to center stage, though he clearly had the talent to do that as well.

“Pete didn’t want to be the star front man, the focus, so playing with Pete for me is the best music I ever played in part because he has this incredible ear and ability to hear things and play in ways that others don’t,” Stickle said. “He’s very inventive and very musical. His instruments would sing and he could blend but really complement everything.”

A native Vermonter, Sutherland showed musical inclinations from early childhood but really found his love for music while attending what was then known as Castleton State College. He played banjo at first but attended a fiddlers contest in Craftsbury and fell in love with that instrument, which he taught himself to play.

“I decided to go in the path of old-time music,” he told the Free Press for a 2000 profile. “That stirred me.”

Sutherland moved to North Carolina for a time to absorb bluegrass music. (“It was like going to Oz,” he told the Free Press.) After living in Indiana for a time, he returned to Vermont as his base but toured the country to perform in addition to regular, popular gigs in his home state.

“Pete is one of the humblest and most folk-literate musicians I know,”' central Vermont musician Colin McCaffrey, a frequent collaborator with Sutherland, told the Free Press in 2004. “His songs are timeless; his fiddling is instantly recognizable; and his influence is huge on so many folk musicians in New England and beyond.”

'Winter Tales' remembrances

Sutherland performed regularly for “Winter Tales,” a seasonal storytelling and music event by Vermont Stage that turns 18 this month. Some who knew Sutherland’s work well through “Winter Tales” paid tribute on social media to the Monkton resident upon learning of his death.

Actor and musician Kathryn Blume – whose husband, Mark Nash, conceived of “Winter Tales” when he was artistic director of Vermont Stage – posted a “Winter Tales” video on Facebook this week from a dozen years ago with Sutherland on piano. She wrote how Vermont singer Patti Casey was “doing the sultry up front business, but Pete in the back (was) just being wry and perfect. What an honor to know, love, and work with someone who has touched so damn many people. Way to rock life, Pete!”

Casey’s tribute on Facebook to Sutherland was succinct. “For Pete, with so much love and gratitude,” she wrote. “You will live forever in my heart and music.”

The current artistic director of Vermont Stage, Cristina Alicea, who’s directing this year’s “Winter Tales,” also honored Sutherland on Facebook. “Thank you, Pete Sutherland,” Alicea wrote. “I loved your curmudgeonly charm, your wry humor, your beautiful voice, the way you walked through the world, and, of course, the way you lifted us up with your music.”

Contact Brent Hallenbeck at bhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com. Follow Brent on Twitter at www.twitter.com/BrentHallenbeck.

This article originally appeared on Burlington Free Press: Pete Sutherland: Vermont musicians mourn loss of performer, mentor