Remembering Pete Sutherland

Collage artwork by Pete Sutherland

Legendary Vermont musician Pete Sutherland died on November 30, 2022. In the wake of his passing, tributes and remembrances from his vast, nationwide community of musical collaborators, students, mentees, and fans, abound. We share just two, of the many, here:

Screenshot from The Bird’s Flight music video produced by Myles David Jewell

• One of the last recordings projects Pete was involved in was co-creating an album with musicians Timothy Cummings and Brad Kolodner entitled “The Birds’ Flight.” The title alludes to this quote from Pete Seeger: “A song is like a picture of a bird in flight; the bird was moving before the picture was taken, and no doubt continued after.” This music video featuring the last track from the album was produced by longtime friend of VT Folklife Myles David Jewell. Evoking an animated paper-cut collage (amid his musical pursuits, Sutherland himself was also an avid collage artist) the video beautifully pays tribute to the concept of musical migration and transformation across generations, as well as the power of audio recording.

• The Bright Wings Chorus led by southern Vermont musician Brendan Taffe recently made this recording of one of Pete’s original songs, “Be the Light,” a perfect soundtrack as the solstice approaches. 

Pete was a longtime collaborator with Vermont Folklife, serving as a mentor artist through the Vermont Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program (VTAAP), sharing new interpretations of old songs, and he even reached out in the midst of the pandemic lockdown to share the audio diary he’d been recording throughout, giving us a glimpse of the world as he so closely observed it with his keen artist’s eyes. We miss you Pete.