Sugar Hill Records Co-Founder Barry Poss Dies at 79

Sugar Hill Records co-founder and longtime owner Barry Poss died Tuesday, May 13 at age 79 following a battle against cancer.

Poss was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada on Sept. 7, 1945. After graduating from Toronto’s York University, he began studying sociology at North Carolina’s Duke University in 1968, as a James B. Duke Graduate Fellow. While still a graduate student at Duke, he attended the Union Grove Fiddler’s Gathering. He also learned traditional, old-time sounds from musicians including Fred Cockerham, Tommy Jarrell and Tommy Thompson.

Poss began working for David Freeman at Rebel Records and County Records, learning about the record business and later launched Sugar Hill Records with Freeman in 1978. That same year, Sugar Hill released its initial project, One Way Track, from the group Boone Creek, which featured Terry Baucom, Steve Bryant, Jerry Douglas, Wes Golding and Ricky Skaggs. Two years later, Poss took over control of the company and relocated it to Durham, North Carolina.

Sugar Hill Records became a home and championing label to scores of bluegrass, Americana and roots artists — including Jerry Douglas, Ricky Skaggs, Nickel Creek, The Seldom Scene, Tim O’Brien, Sam Bush, Sarah Jarosz, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, The Infamous Stringdusters, Robert Earl Keen, Hot Rize, Lonesome River Band, Bryan Sutton, Guy Clark, The Del McCoury Band, Ronnie Bowman, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett and Townes Van Zandt.

The label was part of 12 Grammy-winning projects, including five projects that won a Grammy for best bluegrass album, from artists including Parton, Del McCoury Band and Nashville Bluegrass Band. Parton recorded albums like 2001’s best bluegrass album-winning The Grass Is Blue and 2002’s Halos & Horns for the label.

Poss sold the label to Welk Music Group in 1998 and became its chairman in 2002. In 2015, Concord Bicycle Music acquired the label.

Beyond his work at Sugar Hill Records, Poss was instrumental in the formation of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA), and served as a founding board member of the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum. He was also honored with the IBMA’s distinguished achievement award in 1998 and won the IBMA liner notes of the year honor alongside Jay Orr in 2007 for penning the liner notes for the project Sugar Hill Records, A Retrospective. He was also honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Americana Music Association in 2006.

IBMA Executive Director Ken White says in a statement, “Barry Poss was not just a champion of roots music and the artists that make it, but he was instrumental in the founding of our organization. For that and so much more, we will always be grateful.”