Pete Sutherland Fiddle and Festival Posters

Pete Sutherland in the 1990s. Photo by Matthew Thorsen.

Pete Sutherland is a local legend in Vermont. He’s a fiddler, and has been playing folk music for many years. In the 1970s, he was in the folk music band Arm and Hammer. They spent time playing different venues in Vermont and did a little bit of touring. It was in a Vermont venue where he first laid eyes on this fiddle. 

It was one of those bitter cold Vermont nights, between sets, someone had mentioned there was an old fiddle behind the bar.  “This was my first actual band, and the fiddle certainly had a lasting impact on me.”  He had to tune it up outside in the cold since. inside, the bar was playing ear-splitting music. Upon further inspection he realized it was a high-quality fiddle and a lucky find for him. He paid the two hundred dollars, a hefty sum, and one which other people found high. “Everyone thought there were drugs in it,” he said.  For a random find based solely on chance, Pete made the best of the fiddle, playing it in several bands for about twenty years. He enjoyed it so much that it was the only fiddle he used for two decades.

This became his go-to fiddle. Like many other fiddles, this one is made with a spruce top and a maple back. As you would expect over twenty years of almost nightly use, his fingers would wear down the fretboard. Reminiscing on the long drives through Kentucky, West Virginia, and North Carolina, he said these trips, “would put miles on his van, and the one thousand shows in between put similar miles on the fingerboard.” With Arm & Hammer, his favorite songs to play with the instrument were, “Billy in the Lowground,” “Ragtime Annie,” and “Reel de Gaspe.”

“I decided to donate it out of pride. I wanted to add something to the museum just to say that I put something there. If the fiddle was worth something to another player I would have gifted it to them. I’m proud that I have something to contribute, and I know it will be more appreciated in the museum rather than in my home, or a friend’s.”

Pete Sutherland in the 1970s. Photo courtesy Pete Sutherland.

The posters are from local festivals where he played the fiddle at the time. They depict The Bicentennial of 1976, as well as a couple of ski areas, like Burke and Sugarbush. The posters help to understand the musical climate in which Pete was playing the fiddle and really show what the era was like. These festivals were post-Woodstock events, not as chaotic, but still very raw and emotional. Whether fans knew all the songs and bands, or were there for fun, every attendee was having a blissful experience.  “These I had on my walls for a long time. They’re cool posters, and they tie in well with the fiddle, since I was playing it at the time.”

Most recently, Pete is working with his current band Pete’s Posse, and has released a new record, Ya Know, Ya never Know. It is a double album; the accumulation of the creative energies from 2020.

Written by Phil Franklin.