Past Notes from Pete

November 26, 2003

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day. It's not Turkey Day. It's not just a day off from school or work when we get to pig out and then watch football. It is a time to sit back, reflect on the past year and give thanks for all the blessings we have in our lives. Many years ago I was in Atlantic City, NJ on Thanksgiving Day. I was there doing a 6-week gig with Florence Henderson. (Mrs. Brady from The Brady Bunch) When the band and crew and Florence and her husband John sat down to dinner there a brief moment when everyone felt a little awkward. What do you do? What do you say on Thanksgiving when you are with people you really don't know that well? I couldn't stand it so I stood up and suggested we go around the table and have each person say something that they were thankful for in their lives. There were a few grumbles from the pack but after a minute or so everyone agreed to do it. In the moments that followed we learned that one man had a new baby in the family, another was getting over serious health problems and Florence had two sons she was very proud of. I was thankful for a life full of new experiences. And so it went around the table. We learned more about each other in ten minutes than we had learned in the previous 4 weeks. I really believe everyone felt a little better about the day after taking the chance to speak out loud of the things they were thankful for. So take a moment in your day tomorrow and tell someone what you are thankful for. You'll be glad you did. Happy Thanksgiving! ... and don't forget the pumpkin pie...

November 24, 2003

Well, I found out today that I'll get my Collings guitar out of the shop around the end of the year. After that I'm sending it down to Houston, TX to get photographed for some ads to be used in Acoustic Guitar magazine. It'll be fun to have my guitar featured but not me. After the ad comes out you can go to the Collings web site (http://www.collingsguitars.com) and download the photo to use as your desktop photo. They say the work is going well and that I probably won't even be able to see where the hole was when they get done. I told them I'd be happy if it's structurally sound and not to worry too much about the look. They said it's no more trouble to do a good job then it is to do a bad one and if was okay with me they'd just as soon do a good job. I suppose that's just one more reason why I like Collings. If they're going to do a job at all, they're going to do it well. There's a lesson for all of us.

November 10, 2003

Last Friday my prized Collings OM1 cutaway took a fall on a recording session and now has a big hole (about 3" long) in the side. So I'm sending it off to Austin, TX today to get repaired. I'll probably be without this guitar for a couple of months and this is a big blow to me. I've been playing this guitar almost exclusively since 1997. I'll miss it but it'll be in much better shape when it returns.

I had a great time in Roswell, GA last weekend. I played at The Listening Room on Saturday night for a small but appreciative crowd. (I've always said that I'd rather play for 20 people who are listening than 1000 that aren't -- I was able to put that theory to the test this past weekend.) Then on Sunday I did a workshop. There were lots and lots of great questions coming at me. I love it when that happens because I have to stop and think about what it is that I do and exactly how I do it. I always learn something new about guitar or my own playing when I do workshops. Thanks to all who attended!

November 1, 2003

My newest CD is all recorded, mastered and almost ready to go. This one has 15 cuts of mostly solo guitar but I did have Jeff Cox and Matt Flinner join me for a couple of tunes. The tentative title for the CD is The Santa Rita Connection. It's also the title of one of my favorite tunes that I've written. This CD includes my arrangements of Stevie Wonder's Superstition and Earth, Wind & Fire's Shining Star. There are lots of my tunes including Tommy In The Morning -- written for Tommy Emmanuel. It should be released by the Favored Nations Acoustic label early next year.

Be on the lookout for a lesson and interview in the February issue of Guitar Player Magazine. It hits the stands in late December or early January.

I want to thank the almost 4,000 of you who have purchased my instructional DVD's over the last two years! Your comments and letters have been inspiring and invaluable.

According to Happy Traum of Homespun Tapes- "the response (to the Pete's DVD's) has been unprecedented!" Homespun has been around for over 35 years so It's nice to know that I'm doing a good enough job to get that kind of comment from the president/owner of the company. Another one of the folks who works at Homespun said in reference to my new DVD's A Guitarist's Guide To Better Practicing and Arrangements For Solo Guitar - "This is the best response we've ever had to anything. Ever!" So thanks again to all of you who are buying these instructional DVD's. I sincerely hope your skills are improving.

October 6, 2003

It's been a very busy time lately. Lots of gigs and recording sessions and no time for fishing. Winfield, Kansas was more fun this year than ever. I did 9 concerts in 3 days. The first day and a half were cold. At one point I was wearing every shirt I had packed for the week and I was still cold. My hands were purple and somehow I managed to play my guitar. Luckily the sun came out Friday and Saturday and gave us all a much needed break from the chill and the wind. Probably the best part about the week was that my best friend from college, Jeff Troxel, came to Winfield and won the National Flatpicking Championship. I had only seen Jeff one time since we graduated --- almost 20 years ago. We had a blast hanging out and catching up with each other. I brought him to Carp Camp where they promptly put him in the center of the group. Then Jeff and about 50 of his newest friends played a tune for all the folks listening on.

After Winfield I went to St. Louis where I did a workshop and concert at the Midwest Guitar Show. I did a double bill with Leo Kottke. I had never met Leo before and after hanging out with him for the evening I felt as if I'd known him for years. We played at the Sheldon Concert Hall which is my favorite venue to perform in. It was sold out to 900 wonderful supporters of all kinds of music. The end of the evening was a career highlight for me when Leo, Larry Coryell and I came out and played and encore together.

Last weekend I was in Columbus, Indiana and Elizabethtown, KY. I did a show with the great singer/songwriter Tim Grimm. I also got to spend a crazy day and night the with the wild, zaney and talented Zarb brothers. Coffee was invented so that the rest of us could keep up with them. Matt and Pauli Zarb are from Australia and are two of the most genuine, sincere and fun guys I've ever met.

September 5, 2003

I just returned from Las Vegas where Chris Nole, Jim Curry and I sold out two nights at the Silverton Hotel & Casino. On the 2nd night they had to bring an extra 150 seats and it was still standing room only. The concert was called COLORS IN TIME -- A TRIBUTE TO JOHN DENVER. When We pulled up and I saw that sign on the marquee I felt very proud because Colors In Time is the title to the CD's that Chris and I recorded as a tribute to John. The shows were great. Chris and I opened with a medley of John's hits on guitar and piano. Jim came out and sang a couple of tunes then Chris and I played some of our new music for about 20 or 30 minutes. Chris has some great new piano music that I joined him on and he learned a couple of my hot guitar tunes. I'm sure it was as fun to be on stage playing the music as it was to be in the audience hearing it. After that Jim and the band came out and we did a slew of JD tunes and it was over. The audiences were wonderful. They sang and clapped at all the right places and after the show they stopped by to shake hands and say hello. Many related JD stories. Most just thanked us for keeping the JD Flame lit. It was a fun gig and one we hope to do again.

August 5, 2003

I played a very fun gig last week at World Music in Nashville. It's a growing trend for music stores, that once the sun goes down, to clear off the stage, pull out the chairs and crank up the P.A. It's such a treat to play in a room full of guitar fans. Check out the link above to see photos of the gig.

August 2, 2003

Well it's been a while since I've written anything here. Not that I haven't had anything to say, it's just that I have been so busy this year and finding time to site down for a while to write has been hard. I've been having a wonderful time this year doing lots of different projects. I just finished working on a record of Spanish music and then a record of pop rock and some kids music and occasionally I get time do some of my own tunes too. As a matter of fact, I'm in the middle of my next guitar CD. It's a pretty exciting CD for me. I'm doing lots of my tunes and several pop tunes. I should be done recording by the middle of this month and then, hopefully, it will be released early next year.

I had an absolute blast on tour this summer with Tommy Emmanuel and Peppino D'Agostino (pronounced "Dog-o-stino")In fourteen days we did 12 concerts, three workshops, four radio performance and four T.V. shows. Needless to say there was no time for sleep much less sightseeing. When we got home I had to look at my tour book to see all the places we had been. I met a lot of wonderful people and played in some great halls. The best of which has to be the beautiful Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis. I had played there once before as part of a John Denver Tribute so it was especially nice to return doing my own thing. I'm excited that I will be returning there next month on September 27th 2003 to open for Leo Kottke. Probably the most fun I had on the tour was when I would play my arrangement of Stevie Wonder's Superstition. I could hear people in the audience start to laugh as I would add each part. First the bass then the melody then the horn parts. It is certainly a fun piece to play when the audience comes along for the ride and I would gladly join them in the laughter and the excitement but I'm so afraid that I'll be joining in the celebration and forget to play...

I've got two new DVD's that were released last month. One is A Guitarist's Guide To Better Practicing and the other is Arrangements For Solo Acoustic Guitar. The ones I did on John Denver's style are now among the best sellers for Homespun Tapes and the new garnered this quote from Homespun "...the best response we've ever had for anything... ever!" It's nice to know that my teaching style is working for people. I'm just thankful that I had some good teachers who helped me make sense of the guitar.

9-16-98 Somewhere in Kansas (from my journal)
They say things happen for a reason and I suppose they’re usually right. I was driving from Nashville, TN. to Winfield, KS. to compete in a guitar contest. It was early in the morning and I had all day to kill so I didn’t mind when I realized I had taken a wrong turn in El Dorado, which took me about 50 miles out of my way. I was in the town of Eureka by the time it dawned on me that I had to turn around and go back to El Dorado to get on the road to Winfield.

On the way back to El Dorado I saw the most beautiful rainstorm. You see, in Kansas, the plains go on forever. So you can watch a rain storm that is miles away on one side of you and on the other side, it’s nothing but blue skies and puff clouds. Eventually, the highway led me inside the rain storm and the sight there was just as spectacular because I could still look out and see blue skies all around me. The rain was falling hard on the windshield but I kept my window down as I drove so I could continue looking beyond the storm.

That’s when I saw the car in the ditch. All at once, there were several thoughts running through my mind. First, even though there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the road, I couldn’t believe people would pass by without stopping to help. In the city, I could understand it. Folks are always in a hurry to get somewhere. But out here in the country, where people always have time to stop and ask about family or talk about the weather or share the latest gossip, it surprised me. It was a long way to the next town --- a long way to the next anything for that matter --- and the folks in the car would surely need a ride. My second thought was my hope that who ever was in the car was not hurt. As I turned my Jeep around to get on the side of the road where the car in the ditch was, it occurred to me that things happen for a reason and maybe this is why I made a wrong turn back in El Dorado. It’s nice to help folks out when they need it.

I put on a hat and flannel shirt, since it was still raining, and hurried over to the car. I could see someone in the car but he or she wasn’t moving at all. I thought, "My God, they’re dead." But right away I saw that the windows were fogged up and that they had to be breathing. Gerald Merwin was alright. He said he was going too fast to make his turn and wound up in the ditch. I offered him a ride. He said that he had planned to wait ‘til the rain stopped but that a ride sounded like a good idea. As we drove the mile and a half down the muddy road to his farm house, we talked about how to get his car out of the ditch and about Winfield. He’d heard of the festival there but had never been. He’s got a band that plays once a week at local retirement homes. (Then a thought occurred to me --- when you live in the middle of nowhere, how far do you go and still consider it local? He could be driving 50 miles to play for the old folks.) Mr. Merwin said his band isn’t very good but that the old folks like it when they come and play. I supposed that they were just about as good as they needed to be --- and that that was good enough. And I’m sure the band probably enjoyed playing as much as the old folks liked hearing them.

After I dropped Mr. Merwin at his house, I drove on to Winfield and entered the contest I had come for. I got nervous when my number was called and I played poorly. I didn’t even place, but had a good time just the same. I met some great folks and we played all night at my campsite.

The next morning, after sleeping on the ground all night, my back was killing me. I decided to leave the festival early and head for home. So I packed up my guitar and my wounded pride, a bottle Advil for my back and I hit the road. I had over 700 miles to drive to get home and a lot of time to think. After a while it dawned on me that maybe I didn’t just take a wrong turn in El Dorado for a reason, maybe my whole trip was for a reason. It’s a long way to go to help a guy out of a ditch, but I drove the rest of the way home with a smile on my face.

But before that.....

So... one day we were on tour with John Denver and we wound up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. As it turned out we had a day off and Crosby, Still & Nash and Fleetwood Mac were in town and staying at our hotel. When we got there our percussionist said that he used to play with CSN and he was going to try and get us all tickets to their show. Well later on that day I was getting on the elevator to go up to my room. The doors opened and who was standing there but David Crosby and his wife. Too cool! I looked at him and said "David Crosby!? My name's Pete Huttlinger. Glad to meet you." I told him about being out with JD and our percussionist and he invited me up to his room. After hanging out in his room for a while and talking about our respective tours, I mentioned that our tour was going to be changing the next day. We had been on a bus up to that point, but starting the next day we would be on John's Lear Jet. A few minutes later his wife came out of the bathroom and asked how things were going on the road with John Denver. David looked up and said "Honey, they're not on the road. They're on a jet!!!" From that point on we had our tour slogan. Thanks David.

To see where I'll be playing please check out the Calendar.

I play Collings guitars. I've been through many, many brands of guitars over the past 26 years and I've never found a guitar that responds so well, has such great tone and is intonated so well. I don't do an official endorsement with Collings Guitars but I just like them so much that I want everyone to play them. Try one...you'll be glad you did.

One thing I do endorse is Elixir Strings. Why, you ask? Here's the scoop. A few years ago Elixir was just getting started and I met some of the folks at their booth at the summer NAMM show here in Nashville, TN. They gave me a couple of sets of their new strings to try and asked if I'd fill out a survey form after I used them. I tried them a couple of days later. I had an outdoor gig with a fiddle player. It was just the two of us so I had to play A LOT. It was also about 100 degrees and very humid. Normally in that circumstance my strings would be completely dead in about an hour. I played that set of strings for about a month before I finally changed them! No kidding. Over the next year or so they made several improvements to the strings and I've been using them ever since. These strings just last longer than any other string on the market and when you own as many instruments as I do, you want to spend your time playing them not changing strings. Go out and try a set. I think you'll like 'em too.

November 2002

Well, it's been quite a while since I've updated the "Notes from Pete" page and a lot has been happening in the past several months.... I started doing some work with LeAnn Rimes and that's been a lot of fun. We did a bunch of major TV shows including The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Regis & Kelly. They were all a lot of fun to do and the crews at each show were a pleasure to work with. A couple of weeks ago we went to Los Angeles with LeAnn Rimes, rehearsed for a day and then traveled up the coast to San Jose and did two shows at the Shoreline Amphitheater. It was the 16th annual benefit show for the Bridge School, which is a school for severely handicapped children. It is put on each year by Neil Young who has a son at the school. There were a lot of acts on the bill that weekend including Ryan Adams, the Foo Fighters, Tenacious D and James Taylor. The highlight for me that weekend (not to mention one of the highlights of my life) was at the end of each night when I got to play a tune with Neil Young and James Taylor. What a blast!

In October we did another great weekend in Aspen, Colorado playing the music of John Denver with all his old band mates and a few special guests....Amy Grant, Vince Gill and Gary MuleDeer. Amy and Vince were fantastic as always but I was really turned on by Gary MuleDeer. He's not only hilarious but he's a warm and kind hearted man too.....(and he hugged me and told me he liked my guitar playing.) I hear that we helped raise over $400,000 for Challenge Aspen! That's very exciting news indeed.

I haven't had much time to fish lately. But I trust that the fish will be there when I get the chance to get back on the river.

My new CD, The Need, came out in September and I've been getting some wonderful feedback from it. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun to make my first vocal CD. I'm really happy with the way everything turned out on it. My friends all played great. Check it out on the Merchandise page when you get a chance.

April 2002

Okay, okay.... I have had my brush with stardom. It was nice and it was fun but now I know how all those t.v. fishermen feel. Everyone coming up to you on the street bugging you for an autograph, talking about the fish you pulled in on last week's episode. They pat you on the back and talk about your casting technique. Ask what fly you were using when you pulled in the big one and you laugh and say, "Big one? You should have seen the one that pulled ME in. Now that was a big one!" They laugh nervously and shuffle their feet while trying to figure out if you are really kidding. You laugh and tell them it's true and watch as they haul ass to the local fly shop to get the latest nymph pattern and just the right strike indicator. Such is life...

Well today I went out fishing with my friend and neighbor, Richard. Richard is quite a fisherman and having come from Montana, I give him all the respect a fly fisher from Montana deserves. You see when someone is from Montana and they fish with flies they automatically get looked upon differently. You size them up and watch how they walk and talk, find out what kind of car they drive, and see if they prefer sinking tip to floating lines and if you're really nuts, you might start eating whatever they eat just to be sure you've got the upper hand on the river. DO AS THE MONTANANS DO is my motto. Montana is sort of the Mecca for flyfishing and I have never been there. Only read about it and watched Saturday-morning-t.v.-stars fish there.

So we waited for the tornadoes and thunderstorms to pass far enough so that we could stand in the water and not wave lightening rods around, and headed for the river. We saw far too many cars in the usual places we fish so we headed down stream quite a ways to explore some new areas. Richard is not only from Montana and a great fisherman but he is also the best fly tier I've had the pleasure to know. We used his Prince Nymphs and several other patterns with fairly regular activity and then he switched to a Deep Sparkle Pupa tied on #14 and #16 hooks. At a spot just below the bridge (wanna know which bridge and river?) he started pulling in a fish on every other cast. Things were slow on my side of the river so I moved on down stream because I couldn't bear to watch him catching all those trout and me not be a part of it. Well down stream things were working in my favor. Richard came down to join me and for the next hour we stood side by side and pulled in rainbow after rainbow. I must have caught 30 fish and I'm sure Richard caught at least 50.....no kidding. He IS from Montana after all.

This week I'll be learning to tie the Deep Sparkle Pupa...

Thanks to everyone for watching the ESPN 2 show FLYFISHING AMERICA last week and weekend. I was able to watch it at the Seattle airport on Saturday morning. Sitting at the bar drinking a Bloody Mary with Glen and waiting for our breakfast burritos that the cook forgot to make. It was 7:00 AM and Glen told everyone in the bar that I was on t.v. It made for great 7:00 AM conversation at the bar as everyone tried to figure out who I was. I told them I'm just a guy with a fly rod and a guitar. That was good enough for them and they started sharing fishing stories of their own.

Stay happy.

Well, it was a long time in the planning and now March 30 has come and gone. (I was in my 30's and had dark hair when I was first approached about doing the show) In short, we had a blast. I finally got to dress up a little bit. I love wearing nice clothes but don't get many opportunities to do so on stage. Charlie and Barb White came up from Florida for the show. (Thanks you guys!) The string players played great as usual and having Tom Roady and Craig Nelson there with me was a real treat. My portion of the show seemed like it was over before I got started. I managed to get in a few silly jokes and the audience was kind enough to give a courtesy laugh when appropriate. Actually, I think they couldn't help themselves. (I learned a lot from John Denver about relating to an audience and ........ timing. It's all about timing. He was a real pro and I felt as if I was in class every night when we took the stage. I never try to mimic him at all. I only do my own thing, tell my own stories, play what I play. But I learned a lot about delivery from JD. ) Well, John Johns played some superb classical guitar music and Bryan Sutton flatpicked up a storm. He did a 6 or 7 minute improvised piece that had my jaw on the floor several times. We had a sold out show and I imagine we'll do it again some time.

Check out the current issue of FingerStyle Guitar magazine. The inside, back cover has a section they call the "Guitar Gallery". This month they are featuring my custom made Larrivee LV-10 Deluxe. They took some great photos of the guitar especially for the magazine.

I'm doing a new John Denver guitar instructional video. Please let me know what you want to learn. I've had a few requests but now it's coming down to the wire and I want to hone in on the final tunes.

There's been a whole lot going on in the last few months. In no particular order, here's the latest. I went on a week long trip to Bormio, Italy and it was fantastic! Bormio is an old village (pre-dating Christ) in the heart of the Italian Alps. I performed at the local school, in two local pubs and then a big concert at the end of the week. I skied in the Alps for the first time and I had an excellent teacher to remind me of the finer points of skiing. It had been a while since I skied and I appreciated his help very much. My instructor was also the man who brought me to Italy to perform. His name is Cesare Anzi. He was born in a house on one of the mountains surrounding Bormio so it is no wonder that he is an incredible skier since he was learning to walk and ski at the same time. His wife, Manuela, was on the Italian World Cup downhill ski team in the 70's and is also incredible. Cesare's brother was a world cup winner! Oh, by the way they don't speak english and I don't speak Italian---------yet. It didn't matter a bit we managed to communicate just fine.

The gigs I played were very well received. The kids at the school were so much fun to be around and the folks in the pubs were quite attentive to the music....even when we played jazz. At the weekend concert we had about 1800 people in attendance. A nice big hall with a great sound system. I met some fantastic guitarists over there. Sergio Lavia, Andrea Benzoni and Marco DiMaggio. Sergio and I had a blast playing music together but we could not have a conversation. He taught me an Argentinian tango that he composed and I taught him Marisa Monte's version of De Noite Na Cama. Sergio's girlfriend, Delena, was there and she sang De Noite Na Cama and some other Brazilian tunes. What a world class singer she is. Sergio and I borrowed Marco's drummer and bass player for the weekend concert and we had an absolute blast.

I came home from Italy and had one day to rest and do laundry before heading to L.A. to record a new cd for the Favored Nations Acoustic label. I signed with them recently and the new cd will be out this summer. It will be in stores everywhere. And I do mean everywhere. I am very excited about being on this label. It feels like a good home for me.

The dates are out for the FLYFISHING AMERICA episode that I will appear on.

4/16/02 -- 11:00 am EST on ESPN 2

4/17/02 --11:30 am EST on ESPN 2

4/20/02 --10:00 am EST on ESPN 2

We fished the Piney River in Colorado last July and I'm really hoping that they show the shot of me catching the fish and not the tree. (It was a nice tree but definitely not a keeper) We filmed lots of music around the campfire as well so it should be a really nice show.

DECEMBER 2001

Okay, so we do the gig with SheDaisy and I figure "That was nice but I'll never hear from them again." They've got a regular band and they are all great players. Well, the other day I get another call from my buddy who says the girls want me to join them on a t.v. show. It turned out the rest of the band was tied up doing other things. So we did a song on CMT's Most Wanted Live last week and it went great. I brought out my Larrivee LV-10 Custom One-Of-A-Kind guitar. It was the debut performance for this guitar. It's so nice that I'm afraid to play it anywhere. I figured it would be okay on t.v. I told the cameramen about the guitar and they got a couple of close up shots for me. I love the music biz. I never know what is going to happen and every day is different.

A couple of weeks ago I got a call to go Kentucky with a friend of mine. He works for a country group called SheDaisy (three beautiful sister/singers) and they needed a guitar player to accompany them while they performed for 20,000 U.S. servicemen and President Bush. As it turned out it was just me and a fiddle/mandolin player and the girls. We rehearsed on the hour long drive to Fort Campbell, played our show, had a great Thanksgiving dinner with several thousand of our new friends and came home. It was a beautiful day in Kentucky. SheDaisy and several other artists and the bands all donated their time and talent to show support for the troops. It felt really good to do my small part and to know that it was appreciated.

I just finished a two week recording project. In that time we recorded an entire musical production, some kids songs,and then a bunch of songs in different styles. Reggae, calypso, rock, country, pop, contemporary christian and even some music in the style of the silent movies. We never know from day to day or from tune to tune what is expected of us and that is what makes it so fun --- and satisfying. I don't know if I have to play electric or acoustic guitar, bouzouki or tres, classical guitar or banjo. It's that challenge that I enjoy so much.

On November 7, 2001, I did a gig with Amanda Hunt-Taylor (Your Love Amazes Me) and it was fun as always. We played at "3rd and Lindsley" here in Nashville. She called my house the night before the gig and asked if I would open for her. I said sure just tell me when to start and when to stop. We had a small crowd and I was in a "nutty" mood so I did what I usually do --- I rambled and played a bunch of guitar tunes that I like. Doc Watson, Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Steely Dan, Celtic music were all featured. A fine time was had by all. Amanda took the stage and I put my acoustic guitar down and cranked up my strat. We rocked and had a blast.