Got some sad news over the past weekend that my former banjo teacher, Cutch Tuttle, passed away Easter Sunday, April 5th.
Memorial page: https://www.henryfuneralhome.net/obituaries/john-cutch-tuttle-iii
Cutch's member page (sneergrass): https://www.banjohangout.org/myhangout/home.asp?id=16154
I took lessons with Cutch for about 4 years, and I always enjoyed the camaraderie we had, and our shared love for all things banjo including gourd banjos. Cutch started me out with Scruggs' style for about a year before introducing me to some old time music albums (the County Clawhammer volumes, Mary Z. Cox's albums and tab books, and R.D. Lunceford's "Drop Thumb") after I took more interest with learning clawhammer and the old tunes. On my last lesson, he sent me off with a few parting gifts, and a letter of "musical recommendation".
Cutch was featured a time or two in Banjo Newsletter, and headed up the Neo-Traditional band, Hound Dog Hill, competing at Galax and Clifftop, to name a few festivals as well as local spots like the Mockingbird and Marino's in Staunton. After I moved to WV in 2012, I ended up running into Cutch at the 2015 Clifftop festival and had a nice visit. We kept up with each other with the occasional email or YouTube comment we'd leave on each other's videos. His daughter, Finn, was born around the time I was taking lessons, and one of the last videos Cutch uploaded from a year or so ago was of him and Finn on gourd banjo playing and picking a tune together. Nice to see she's following in her dad's footsteps: https://youtu.be/yS8Msi-bWt0?si=uwe_QMYb0LSKDij3
Looking back, his son, Sawyer, was also featured on the last couple videos backing dad on guitar: https://youtu.be/gA0A_S55R-E?si=Vgiu5QAmtar4UUoG
Cutch's YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@hounddoghill?si=HuhZI9Jqk7mA8Yiy
Too young.
Edited by - Noah Cline on 04/16/2026 09:12:11
Very sad - sounds like he was a real solid dude. RIP.
I knew Cutch had a special musical mind when, at a concert in Staunton, VA, probably in Gypsy Hill Park on the open air performance stage, Cutch introduced his band's next number by explaining he had speculated about what might happen if the notes to Foggy Mountain Breakdown were played in reverse, from end to beginning. He had arranged the number for the band, and showed us all in the audience what would result. I thought that was pretty inventive.
I'm so sorry for our loss, for a real loss for the music making community.
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