Pete & Oliver of Pete's Posse

18sep6:00 pm8:00 pmPete & Oliver of Pete's Posse

Time

(Saturday) 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Event Details

Local folk hero Pete Sutherland and his protege Oliver Scanlon met up when Oliver was a shy 4th grader, where the two wordlessly bonded over fiddle music. Several years later they began to play out, later joining forces with guitarist Tristan Henderson to form Pete’s Posse, a hard-driving trio that spent half a dozen years touring nationally and internationally with its innovative blend of rocking contradance music, thoughtful and hilarious original songs and soulful three part acappella. The Posse spent the first months of the largely gig-free pandemic recording a double album of new music. With the trio in hibernation due to the closure of the Canadian and U.S. border, Pete and Oliver have revived their duo act, featuring a wide variety of instrumental combinations, informed by all the musical styles and sounds the trio is known for, and continuing to keep the Posse flame burning while adding new repertoire to the mix.

A warm-voiced singer, songsmith and accomplished multi-instrumentalist known equally for his potent originals and his intense recreations of age-old ballads and fiery fiddle tunes, veteran Vermont-based musician, Pete Sutherland has been on staff at dance and music camps and workshops coast-to-coast and is a widely-known year-round teacher and performer at home. Sutherland is a veteran of many touring and recording groups including Metamora, Rhythm in Shoes, The Woodshed Allstars and Ira Bernstein’s Ten Toe Percussion, and is a founding member of the long-running ‘contradance jam band’ The Clayfoot Strutters.

While his music has powered thousands of dancers from Kodiak to Costa Rica, Pete is also perhaps the only old time fiddler whose original compositions have been heard on both “Car Talk” and “Hearts of Space”. A Renaissance man of the folk arts, he is also a record producer (over 80 projects), a songwriter (covered by Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, Nightingale and Altan) and collage artist.

A soulful multi-instrumentalist and spellbinding composer, Oliver Scanlon began his journey of musical discovery playing the viola with the Vermont Youth Orchestra when he was nine. Shortly after he was introduced to his mentor Pete and the immense parallel universe of fiddle music. His keen interest in fiddling led him to seek out further learning and performing opportunities through Mark Sustic’s “Fiddleheads” program, and soon he began attending music camps where he studied various styles with Alan Jabbour, Kimberley Fraser, Andrea Beaton, Eric Favreau and other master fiddlers. In 2008, Oliver and few talented middle school friends formed The Irregulars, a six-piece outfit that played scores of local dances and festivals, and took first prize in the 2011 Young Tradition Vermont talent contest.  In 2013, he both co-founded Pete’s Posse and became the youngest member of Pete’s long running dance band The Clayfoot Strutters. He released a solo album “The Pond Jam” in 2014. Oliver has become recognized for his powerful fiddling and mandolin work, but also as a teacher and mentor including Artist leader for the Young Tradition Vermont Touring Group, and as a meticulous sound tech.

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