“Welcome to “Farmland”. Here are some of my personal favorites from the songs I’ve made up with young Vermonters over the last dozen years. It’s always been a gift to me to sit with the kids, to listen and tell stories to each other, and to discover what words they’d choose to re-tell them. Our continuing touchstone is the traditional ballad, and my classroom writing style is ‘a la collage’: I include as many perspectives as I can, and in the finished lyrics you still get to hear a lot of words and phrases just as they rolled from young brain to paper. Ranging from 1st grade to 8th and from rural to suburban, these folks have been my research team, staff writers, editors, focus groups and friends. A truckload of gratitude to them, to these fine young collaborators and their always gung-ho teachers… I remember them all proudly and fondly when I sing our work.”
- Pete Sutherland, Vermont, 2013