Daisytown brothers play at Washington County Fair
By Christine Haines Herald-Standard
It’s almost hard not to run into Adam Sutch or one of his relatives at the Washington County Fair.
The 17-year-old Daisytown native and his brothers Aaron, 15, and Austin, 10, are showing sheep, goats, pigs and rabbits at the fair this year, winning numerous ribbons in each animal category. Wednesday night Adam Sutch could also be seen playing the trumpet in the California Area High School band before quickly changing from his khaki band shorts into long pants to prepare to show his market lamb.
Of course, not everyone who attends the fair attends the livestock judging for the 4-H members. A few more fair attendees will be seeing the Sutch brothers today at 3 p.m. when they take the stage in the show tent for a concert by their band “Sutch Sounds.”
The band is really a family activity, as described by Aaron Sutch.
“My brother Adam is the main musician, playing the hammered dulcimer. My little brother Austin plays the bodram, which is an Irish drum. My grandpap is on lead guitar and my grandma is on rhythm guitar and my mom plays back up hammered dulcimer and I play a marimbula, which is like an upright bass,” Aaron Sutch explained.
“Grandpap” is Ron Howes and “grandma” is his wife Darlene Howes; “mom” is Michelle Sutch. The band, Darlene Howes said, was all Adam’s idea, coming shortly after he was first introduced to the hammered dulcimer at a seminar held at Benner’s campground outside of Uniontown.
“I started it when I was 11 years old. I was asked to do a banquet and I really didn’t want to do it myself. I knew my grandfather would play if I asked him. He plays guitar,” Adam Sutch said.
He was also joined by his mother and grandmother for that first performance. His two brothers joined the family band a short while later.
It’s actually because of his grandfather that Adam even plays the hammered dulcimer. Ron Howes was the one who had signed up for the hammered dulcimer seminar, but gave his spot in the class to Adam after seeing the boy play the instrument after the instructor’s demonstration their first night at the campground.
His parents bought Adam a small hammered dulcimer for Christmas that year, but it wasn’t long before he was saving his earnings from the family’s deer processing business and his birthday money for a new dulcimer.
“By the next year in the spring I wanted a larger one, so I went out and bought the largest one that they made. I just bought another one because they made one larger,” Adam Sutch said.
A quick check of the teen’s Web site, a href=”http://adamsutch.tripod.com http://adamsutch.tripod.com end
, shows that barely a month goes by without a performance, and some months show two or three concerts on the agenda. The group has also produced two compact discs, one featuring Celtic music and the other with Christmas music.
Adam Sutch said he intends to major in music with a minor in performing arts.
“I want to be able to teach as well as to perform,” Adam Sutch said.
He was named the 2007 Mid Eastern Hammered Dulcimer champion at the competition in Coshocton, Ohio, but failed to place at the national competition in Winfield, Kan. He will be participating in the national competition again at the end of September.
The Washington County Fair continues through Saturday, including a demolition derby at 7 p.m. The complete schedule and directions to the fairground are available at www.washingtonfair.org.