Pete Huttlinger

Pete Huttlinger was born Peter John Huttlinger on June 22, 1961, in Washington, D.C. He first became fascinated with music at the age of nine when a visiting brother in law introduced him to folk style five-string banjo playing. After his father's death in 1964, his family moved to northern California and then to New Bern, North Carolina, by which time he had begun performing and seriously studying music. His skill as a guitarist earned him admission to the elite Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he moonlighted after classes by playing bluegrass music in the city's subways, graduating with honors in 1984 and moving to Nashville. Once there, he busied himself with every musical job he could pick up, from recording demos for songwriters to playing in bands. Huttlinger's breakthrough came in 1994 when he connected with John Denver after Denver's producer heard him playing in a recording session, and he toured the world with Denver as his lead guitarist for the next four years, played on some of his recordings and appeared on his TV specials. His profile rose further in 2000 when he won the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas , a milestone that led directly to his signing as a solo artist, since Steve Vai signed Huttlinger to his Favored Nations label in 2000 after he was named the National Fingerpicking Champion. As a soloist, Huttlinger recorded more than 15 albums, including Catch & Release, Naked Pop, Things Are Looking Up, The Santa Rita Connection, First Light and The Black Swan. Throughout his career Huttlinger remained one of Nashville's most in-demand sidemen, continuing to tour with LeAnn Rimes and John Oates of Hall & Oates, and appearing with Rimes on BBC Television's "Live From Abbey Road," a series taped at the famous London studios, and ABC's "Dancing With The Stars." He was a favorite of Eric Clapton as well, invited to participate in Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festivals in 2004, 2007 and 2010. In March 2007 he achieved a long-held ambition when he made his triumphant debut at Carnegie Hall, appearing there with pianist Chris Nole and vocalist Mollie Weaver in a performance that incited spontaneous bursts of applause throughout the show and a sustained standing ovation at the end. Alongside his performing career, he performed on numerous Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated projects and was also nominated for an Emmy. His life was also marked by extraordinary medical struggles: born with a rare heart defect, he underwent a series of operations, beginning as a teenager, that ultimately failed to normalize the heart's functions. In 2010 he suffered a stroke that his doctors initially thought would permanently immobilize him, but with characteristic determination, he returned to playing guitar within three weeks, with his first performance for his incredulous doctors. Soon after, he suffered a heart failure so catastrophic that it kept him at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston for four months in 2011 , and once again he rebuilt his technique from the ground up.