‘One Night on Sugar Hill’ Concert to Honor Sugar Hill Records’ Barry Poss: ‘We All Owe Him Our Careers’
Categoria: Musica
On Nov. 5, artists will gather in Durham, North Carolina to celebrate the life, career and legacy of late Sugar Hill Records exec Barry Poss.
Por Billboard | 05/11/2026
Eight months ago, Bluegrass Hall of Famer and 14-time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas had an idea to bring artists together for a concert to honor the late bluegrass music champion, Sugar Hill Records’ longtime owner and co-founder Barry Poss, who died at age 79 in May 2025. “Everybody kept saying yes,” Douglas tells Billboard . “Every one of them knew Barry, and this is our wake of sorts, as well, because not everybody got to say goodbye, and we all owe him our careers.” Poss was known for launching, propelling and shaping Sugar Hill Records into a leading force in bluegrass, roots and Americana music and for helping bring scores of artists including Douglas, Ricky Skaggs, Hot Rize, Chris Thile and Nickel Creek into wider acclaim. On Nov. 5, a who’s-who of bluegrass and roots artists will gather at Durham, North Carolina’s The Carolina Theatre to pay tribute to Poss’s visionary career, with One Night On Sugar Hill: Celebrating the Life of Barry Poss & the Legacy of Sugar Hill Records. The towering lineup of “yeses” includes Hot Rize (Nick Forster, Tim O’Brien, Peter Wernick and Bryan Sutton), Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Sarah Jarosz, Robert Earl Keen, Daniel Kimbro, Doyle Lawson, Russell Moore, Mollie O’Brien, Quicksilver (a reunion with Lawson and Jimmy Haley), Peter Rowan, Kristin Scott Benson, Skaggs, Ed Snodderly, Bryan Sutton, The Red Clay Ramblers’ Jim Watson, The Whites’ Sharon Skaggs and Cheryl White, and Robin and Linda Williams. Poss, a Brantford, Ontario, native, became immersed in roots music while studying sociology at Duke University, notably after attending the Union Grove Fiddlers’ Convention. Early on, he worked for Virginia label County and Rebel Records, before forming Sugar Hill Records with Dave Freeman in 1978. Poss gained full control of the label in 1980. Poss continued spearheading the label until selling it to Welk Music Group in 1998 (Concord Music currently owns Sugar Hill Records, as a division of Rounder). Poss and Sugar Hill played an essential role in introducing the world to the talents of artists including Nickel Creek, Chris Thile, Boone Creek, Skaggs, Douglas and more. The label also recorded influential bluegrass artists including Doc Watson, Tim O’Brien, The Infamous Stringdusters, Larry Cordle, The Seldom Scene, New Grass Revival, Bryan Sutton, Doyle Lawson, The Del McCoury Band and more. Over the years, Sugar Hill has also released albums by Americana acts including Chris Hillman, Robert Earl Keen, and Guy Clark, as well as country artists Dolly Parton (who recorded acclaimed bluegrass projects such as the Grammy-winning 2001 project The Grass Is Blue ), Lee Ann Womack, Connie Smith and Willie Nelson. Under Poss’s tenure, Sugar Hill earned five Grammy trophies for best bluegrass album (including in 1994, when the Nashville Bluegrass Band’s Waitin’ For The Hard Times To Go took home the accolade). “The fact that Sugar Hill Records has been such an important part of bluegrass music history is