Pete Huttlinger, American guitarist, Died at 54

  Music

Pete Huttlinger was born on June 22, 1961, in Washington, D.C and died on January 15, 2016.

He was an American guitarist.

He was graduated of Berklee College of Music, Huttlinger is a respected Nashville studio artist.

In 2000, Huttlinger won the National Fingerstyle Guitar Championship at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas.

Pete has played around the world with such artists as John Denver, LeAnn Rimes and many others.

As a music artists, he performs across the U.S. and Europe.

He’s a descended from two lines of prominent journalists.

Pete’s grandfather on his mother’s side, Fred Walker, was an editor of the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, reporting directly to its owner and publisher, William Randolph Hearst.

Joseph his father, was a White House correspondent and a publisher of his own newsletter on the oil industry.

Huttlinger at the age of 12, he had begun music lessons and by 14 he had settled on the guitar.

Following, he graduated from high school, a relative left him a small inheritance.

Pete Huttlinger decided to use this windfall to study at Berklee College of Music.

In the early 1990’s, guitarist John Denver’s tour manager and producer Kris O’Connor heard Huttlinger on another project and recommended him to join Denver’s band.

Pete Huttlinger toured, recorded and performed on television with Denver from 1994 until the singer’s death in 1997.

Pete had performed on numerous Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated projects.

He was nominated for an Emmy for music he both composed and performed for a PBS special.

Huttlingner performances had been used in several national TV series, including the PBS Nature special “Let This Be A Voice.”

Pete Huttlinger created the theme song for ESPN’s Flyfishing America, a program on which he had made guest appearances.

The singer has released numerous albums and received wide acceptance ranging from his critically acclaimed Naked Pop to Things Are Looking Up.

In 2009, he released Fingerpicking Wonder: The Music of Stevie Wonder, on Instar Records.

His most current release (2013) “McGuire’s Landing” was a CD plus a short story that was written by Huttlinger.

He made his debut at New York City’s Carnegie Hall, in 2007,

He was invited back in 2008 and made his first appearance there as a solo artist.

Mr. Huttlingner was scheduled to perform again at Carnegie Hall on January 9, 2010.

In 2004 and 2007, Mr. Huttlingner was invited to participate in both of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festivals.

Mr. Huttlinger also made appearances as a sideman.

Pete toured with John Denver for many years and appears with Country/Pop superstar LeAnn Rimes, including the BBC Television’s “Live From Abbey Road,” a series taped at the famous London studios, and ABC’s “Dancing With The Stars.”

In November 2010, he suffered a stroke, paralyzing his right side and making him lose the ability to speak.

Even though he recovered, eventually suffered end-stage heart failure, the result of a cardiac abnormality that had plagued him since childhood.

Pete was airlifted to the Texas Heart Institute in Houston, where he was outfitted with a heart pump known as a VAD (Ventricular Assist Device) and spent the next four months in the hospital recovering.

In 2013, Mr. Huttlingner released the long-awaited McGuire’s Landing Project during a house concert on his birthday in Baltimore, Maryland.

He was a regularly featured performer with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra and had appeared with a number of other symphonies.

Mr. Huttlinger had a stroke on January 11, 2016, at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He lived in Nashville, Tennessee.

His wife was Erin Morris-Huttlinger.

Pete Huttlinger passed away at 54 yrs old.