Tribute to a Visionary: Barry Poss

Tribute to a Visionary: Barry Poss

Barry Poss came to Duke University from Canada to get a doctorate in sociology, but found a passion in clawhammer banjo playing and the North Carolina music scene. After working for a short time with Rebel Records, he decided to strike out on his own. In 1978, under the label Sugar Hill, he released an album by a young group called Boone Creek, featuring two young future legends Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas. Several other albums followed: The Whites, a family band from Nashville; Hot Rize, a bluegrass group from Colorado, and albums by Peter Rowan and Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. One of his most important early successes came when Ricky Skaggs, then playing with Emmylou Harris, approached him about recording a solo album. The resulting record helped launch Skaggs into a remarkable career that bridged traditional bluegrass and mainstream country music.

By the time Barry sold the company twenty years later, it had released hundreds of roots/folk/bluegrass albums and won 13 Grammys. Among the artists were Dolly Parton, Doc Watson, the New Grass Revival, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, the Seldom Scene, Robert Earl Keen and Nickel Creek, among many others. Sugar Hill wasn’t just a record label; it helped shape the sound of modern bluegrass, folk, and Americana. 

After selling the label in 1998, Poss continued as its president for another ten years. After his retirement he was heavily involved in philanthropic efforts, including the restoration of Durham’s Carolina Theatre, for which he served on their board of directors.

Poss died in May, 2025. Jerry Douglas, 13 time Grammy winning dobro player, wanted to honor him with an all star lineup of musicians that had all released Sugar Hill albums. The ideal location to hold the event was the Carolina Theatre.  The lineup included some of the finest musicians in bluegrass and roots music history, including: 

Boone Creek (reunion with Wes Golding, Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas)

Sam Bush

Stuart Duncan of Nashville Bluegrass Band

Wayne Henderson

Hot Rize (Nick Forster, Tim O’Brien, Peter Wernick, Bryan Sutton)

Sarah Jarosz

Robert Earl Keen

Daniel Kimbro

Doyle Lawson

Russell Moore

Mollie O’Brien

Quicksilver (reunion with Doyle Lawson and John Meador)

Peter Rowan

Kristin Scott Benson

Ricky Skaggs

Ed Snodderly

Bryan Sutton

Jim Watson of The Red Clay Ramblers

The Whites (Sharon Skaggs and Cheryl White)

Robin and Linda Williams

There were many highlights to the evening. Rowan’s classic “Midnight Moonlight” and the closer “Goodnight Irene”; reunions of two long-gone bands, Boone Creek and Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver; Skaggs and Russel Moore reviving a great Skaggs and Rice duet; the Whites with Skaggs and Douglas harmonizing one of their classic gospel tunes; Mollie and Tim O’Brien harmonizing; and Robert Earl Keen absolutely destroying “The Road Goes on Forever’.   

For me, though, the show meant something more. Barry and I were close friends, going all the way back to 1977, when we first met as he was turning the idea of Sugar Hill Records into a reality. I watched what he built over the years, the friendships he made, and the careers he helped launch. Seeing so many of those musicians together on one stage, celebrating what he had accomplished, was something special. I wish Barry could have been there to see it. I know how much it would have meant to him, and how proud he would have been of the artists whose lives and music he helped shape.