Poss frequently acknowledged that he didn’t have a very conventional career path. “I used to joke that I had the perfect qualifications for being in the music business,” Poss once wrote. “I had no business training; in fact, no formal music background either but I teach Sociology of deviant Behavior.”

After graduating from Duke, he took a position with County Records in Floyd, Virginia. Poss and its owner, Dave Freeman, launched Sugar Hill Records in 1978, embracing what Poss called “contemporary music grounded in traditional music roots.” A self-described “wayward academic in an entrepreneurial role,” Poss assumed full control of the label in 1980, and moved it to Durham. He operated the label from there until its sale to Welk Music Group 20 years later. He became the group’s chairman in 2002. It’s now part of Concord Music, which also owns Rounder Records.

Among the many artists of note who recorded for Sugar Hill Records during Poss’ tenure were Pat Alger, Byron Berline, Ronnie Bowman, Sam Bush, Guy Clark, Mike Cross, Rodney Crowell, Jerry Douglas, Sara Evans, Cathy Fink, Butch Hancock, Hot Rize, The Infamous Stringdusters, Chris Hillman, Wanda Jackson, Sarah Jarosz, Robert Earl Keen, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Lonesome River Band, Lyle Lovett, Nashville Bluegrass Band, Nickel Creek, Tim O’Brien, Dolly Parton, Dirk Powell, The Red Clay Ramblers, Peter Rowan, Ricky Skaggs, Darrell Scott, Marty Stuart, Bryan Sutton, Chris Thile, Townes Van Zandt, Doc Watson, and Jesse Winchester.

“The identity peg for Sugar Hill is having that traditional connection to contemporary music,” Poss Told Blue ridge Outdoors in 2008. “Some have taken to describing a ‘Sugar Hill Sound,” but I am not going to try to define that. To me, it’s what connect Doc Watson to Chris Thile, ricky skaggs to Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt to dolly Parton. They all exhibit a rootedness in their contemporary expressions of music. I like it because the music comes from a place. It’s not prefabricated or manufactured.”

Douglas and Skaggs had been part of a bluegrass group called Boone Creek, whose One Way Track album was Sugar Hill’s first release in 1978. In a May 18 Facebook post, Douglas wrote of Poss: “His dream was to have a label that mirrored the same idea as Sam Phillips and his famous Sun label, which catered to a specific audience and created a new genre, Rockabilly Plus. Barry knew an audience was there for a specific form of music (bluegrass) and there were certain bands who could grow that audience and the music would evolve with the growth of that audience.”

Douglas, who also produced a number of recordings for Sugar Hill Records, noted that he and Poss were “very close friends. Confidants really. He was like my wingman and brother at any event we collided with. We would spend hours talking about the direction of the music and the parameters he wanted his label to maintain no matter the current climate.” Poss was also godfather to Douglas’ daughter Nola. “Barry loved my family, and Jill and I, along with our children, will forever press his memory closer to our hearts.”

In addition to spending many years at the helm of Sugar Hill Records, Poss was a founding board member of the Bluegrass Hall of Fame & Museum in Owensboro, Kentucky and helped to launch the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA).

“Barry Poss was not just a champion of roots music and the artists that made it, but he was instrumental in the founding of our organization,” Ken White, IBMA’s executive director, said in a statement. “For that and so much more, we will always be grateful.”

Poss was a recipient of the IBMA’s Distinguished Achievement Award in 1998. The Americana Music Association also honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 in recognition of Sugar Hill’s pivotal role in both preserving and reinvigorating traditional music, while he was inducted into the Oak Ridge Music Hall of Fame in 2023.

Closer to home, Poss also served on the boards of the Carolina Theater, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, MerleFest, the North Carolina, Folklife Institute, and WUNC-FM.

While many artists and others have shared tributes to Poss since his passing, for his part Poss once said: “It’s the artists who make the music to which I’m the most indebted. They had something important to say. They needed to be heard. And I wanted to be part of their creative lives – because it mattered.”

A platform for luminaries and rising stars, the annual conference is the world’s largest gathering of the folk music industry and community. Folk Alliance International’s Official Showcases are jury-selected nightly mini-concerts featuring emerging artists and touring legends from around the world. The performances are 30 minutes in length and are held concurrently on ten full-production stages throughout the host hotel over three nights.

More than 800 artists/acts applied for the opportunity to perform for hundreds of festival and venue bookers, agents, managers, labels, media, and music industry representatives. The curated showcases feature artists representing a diverse array of folk genres including Appalachian, Americana, bluegrass, blues, Cajun, Celtic, global roots, Indie-folk, indigenous, Latin, old time, traditional, singer-songwriter, spoken word, and every imaginable fusion.

Breakthrough artists from previous conferences include The Carolina Chocolate Drops, Darlingside, David Francey, John Fullbright, Kaia Kater, Lake Street Dive, The Milk Carton Kids, Nickel Creek, The Stray Birds, Valerie June, The Waifs, and The Wailin’ Jennys. Past showcase performances have also included guest appearances by Judy Collins, Béla Fleck, Rita Coolidge, Ron Sexsmith, Archie Fisher, Peggy Seeger, and more.

Bringing together musicians, educators, and music industry professionals from around the world, the Folk Alliance International Conference is known for its community atmosphere, business and networking opportunities, and as a hotspot for discovering new talent.

The 2018 conference will feature presentations by Mary Chapin Carpenter and Richard Thompson, the Louis Jay Meyers Music Camp, the International Folk Music Awards, and the third annual Kansas City Folk Festival. Celebrating 30 years of community and song, the conference will YEARS OF COMMUNITY AND SONG, honor the first three decades of the organization’s growth and activity, as well as the broader story of folk music during that time.

Folk Alliance International (www.folk.org) is a Kansas City, MO-based nonprofit organization that seeks to nurture, engage and empower the international folk music community – traditional and contemporary, amateur and professional – through education, advocacy and performance.

Editor’s Note: This article is based on a news release issued by Folk Alliance International, on whose board of directors I serve. I’m also board president of the Northeast Regional Folk Alliance (NERFA), one of its five regional affiliates, which holds it annual conference, Nov. 9-12, in Stamford, CT. I am not involved in the selection of Official Showcase artists.

Having drawn more than 300 entries in the Folk/Acoustic category, contest organizers opted to split the category in half with different judges for each one. Karen Dahlstrom, a New York-based singer-songwriter who also is part of the group Bobtown, took Gold in one of them for her song “The Miner’s Bride,” while Shenandoah Valley-based Kipyn Martin captured the Gold in the other for “Dance Across The Sky.” Martyn’s song also was the Silver winner in the Open category, in which Anna Dagmar and Kevin Wansor took the Gold for “Cutest Nudist.”

Here’s a list of winners, finalists and those receiving honorable mention for songs entered in the contest’s folk/acoustic category:

Gold: Karen Dahlstrom – “The Miner’s Bride”
Silver: Rebecca Rego – “Bury My Body”
Finalists: Mary Gordon Hall – “Fine Start of the season,” Carolyn Fischer – “The Lucky Ones,” and Katie Larson (The Accidentals) – “The Silence”
Honorable Mention: Laura Baron and Paula Monks – “A Little Note,” Lynn Hollyfield – “Because of You” and “Winter’s Gift,” Madeline Clark – “Change My Mind,” David Glaser – “Concrete River,” Daniel Weber – “Goodbye To Day,” Laura Zucker – “Home,” Jamie Kallestad and Ben Cosgrove – “Many Rivers East,” and Mike P. Ryan – “Sidewalk Romance.”

Gold: Kipyn Martin – “Dance Across The Sky”
Silver: Tom Goss – “Illuminate The Dark”
Finalists: Eric Scott and Mike Stacey – “Break Me Open,” Tom Manche – “He Calls Me Man,” and Carolyn Fischer – “The Sextant”
Honorable Mention: Brittany Jean Valint – “Arms & Legs,” Andrew Hardin and Jeannie Burns – “Down The Deep Well” and “Gentle Rain,” Carolyn Fischer – “Fifteen Years Ago,” Brad Colerick – “Late Winter Snow,” Becky Warren – “Louie and Rosalee,” Karen Dahlstrom and Kenny Siegal – “One More Time,” Daniel Rauchwerk (The Lords of Liechtenstein) – “The Last To Die,” and Christopher Mark Jones – “The Trapper’s Wife

Winners also were named in eight other categories. Of particular note to readers of AcousticMusicScene.com, Cathy Fink captured the Gold in the Children’s category for “Twins,” while Frank Solivan, lead vocalist, mandolinist and fiddler for 2014 International Bluegrass Music Association Instrumental Group of the Year Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen, won Gold awards in the Country/Bluegrass and Instrumental categories for “Cold Spell” and “Chief Taghtanic” respectively.

The first place (Gold) winners will receive cash awards. The top winners in each category also will be invited to perform during the awards gala and, along with the contest’s overall winners, will be included in a winners’ compilation CD sponsored by Oasis CD Manufacturing. A list of winners, finalists and honorable mention recipients in all categories may be found online at www.saw.org, along with information about the gala for which tickets are available.

Established in 1979, the Songwriters’ Association of Washington (SAW) is a nonprofit organization that seeks to further excellence in songwriting through hosting educational programs and providing networking and performance opportunities for its members. SAW hosts open mics and showcases, workshops on the art and business of songwriting, and monthly Songwriter Exchange peer critique sessions. It also publishes a monthly e-newsletter.

Booking gigs is the primary objective of some performers who attend the annual NERFA conference, while many presenters and folk DJs come primarily to scout out new artists and those whom they have not previously heard and seen in live performance. However, the conference experience is much more than that; it’s really about forging connections and building community.

Taking center stage during this year’s conference are 14 artists/acts selected by a panel of judges from among nearly 200 applicants, to perform 15-minute sets in the resort’s theater on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night’s lineup features Babik, Layah Jane, Pesky J. Nixon, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, Frank Sollivan and Dirty Kitchen, Louise Mosrie, and Gathering Time. Showcasing on Saturday evening are Spuyten Duyvil, Rebecca Loebe, We’re About 9, Galant, Tu Perds Ton Temps, Everything Fitz, Chris Kokesh, and Cliff Eberhardt & James Lee Stanley.

After the formal showcases, attendees will shuffle between four conference rooms to catch short sets by 40 additional artists, pre-selected from among 260 applicants. Participating artists on Friday night include Amy Black, Robert Bobby Trio, C. Daniel Boling, The Boxcar Lilies, Suzie Brown, Caitlin Canty, The Edna Project, Frankenpine, Connor Garvey, Ariana Gillis, Caleb Hawley, Anne Hills and David Roth, The Jammin’ Divas, Shane Piasecki, Dave Potts, The Squid Jiggers, Dennis Stoughmatt & L’espri, Twangtown Paramours, Craig Werth, and The Whispering Tree.

Slated to perform on Saturday night are Mike Agranoff, Scott Ainslie, Ari and Mia, L.J. Booth, Bill Bourne & The Free Radio Band, Jon Brooks, Chris Castle, Stephanie Corby, Debra Cowan, Rj Cowdery, Jadea Kelly, Deidre McCalla, Occidental Gypsy, Roosevelt Dime, The Sea, The Sea, The Stray Birds, Michael Troy, George Wurzbach, and Brad Yoder Duo.

Following these juried showcases, so-called late-night ‘guerilla showcases take place in some three-dozen hotel rooms until the early morning hours, while other musicians stake out other areas of the hotel and engage in informal jam sessions that often last until 4 or 5 a.m. Some guerilla showcases also are on tap for Friday and Saturday afternoon, following a series of workshops and panel discussions.

Among the topics to be covered in workshops and panel discussions are Arranging for Performance and Recording, Assembling Your Team, Booking and Touring: Taking It to the Next Level, Creating Folk Learning and Performance Experiences for Youth, Creative Funding and Fundraising for Venues, Crossing Borders: Performers Touring Internationally and Presenters Hiring Foreign Artists, Folk Runs on Volunteers, I Want You to Want Me, Make Your Own Market, Maximizing Radio Airplay, Performance Rights Organizations: From Both Sides Now, Social Media and Your Online Presence, and a Ukelele Rendezvous led by Roots Canada’s David Newland..

Acclaimed composer and multi-instrumentalist David Amram will employ some 35 instruments as he conducts a workshop entitled Treasures: Global Folk Roots. Amram was part of the NERFA Conference’s inaugural Wisdom of the Elders panel discussion last year. This year’s Wisdom of the Elders session will feature Folk Legacy Records co-founder Caroline Paton, Old Songs Festival founder Andy Spence and veteran folk DJ and Philadelphia Folk Festival co-founder Gene Shay.

AcousticMusicScene.com editor and publisher Michael Kornfeld, who also is a longtime communications and public relations strategist and serves on the boards of two presenting organizations and NERFA, will take part in panel discussions on EPKs: the bios, the photos, the nuts and the bolts and Performers and Presenters: Partnering to Pull in People.

AcousticMusicScene.com Showcases Set for Thursday – Saturday

Late night and afternoon AcousticMusicScene.com showcases are slated for both Friday and Saturday, along with a very special AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot on Thursday — following what’s known as the Suzi Wollenberg DJ Showcase. Beverages and snacks will be provided, including wine graciously donated by Sherwood House Vineyards of Jamesport and Mattituck, NY.

For the past several years, a number of folk radio DJs have come to the annual NERFA Conference a day early to present artists who they consider to be worthy of more attention for the listening enjoyment of their fellow DJs and other early-arrivers on Thursday night. Playing off of that, AcousticMusicScene.com will again afford three folk DJs who also have recorded albums a chance to raise their voices in song: Barbara and Graham Dean of WBCR in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and Wanda Fischer of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio in New York’s capital region. More than three-dozen artists and acts from across the U.S. and Canada also have been invited to perform one song each during a round-robin song swap that extends for more than three hours. The AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot is designed to be like a late-night song circle around a campfire during a festival, only without a fire and in the cozier confines of a hotel room. Since it takes place before the conference goes into full gear on Friday, the Midnight Hoot also provides DJs and presenters who arrive early with an opportunity to check out many artists during a short period of time and determine whom they might like to catch more of during the weekend.

Participating artists in the AcousticMusicScene.com Midnight Hoot include
(not listed in order of appearance) The Berrys, Robert Bobby Trio, Matt Borrello, The Boxcar Lilies, Caitlin Canty, Chasing June, Jerry DeMeo, Mark Dvorak, Honor Finnegan, Friction Farm, Gathering Time, Marci Geller, Sharon Goldman, Loretta Hagen, James B. Dukehouse, Julie Kathryn, Mara Levine, Rob Lytle, Eli Maniscalco, Moors & McCumber, Lois Morton, Charles Nolan, Elaine Romanelli, Barb Ryman, Paul Sachs, The Sea, The Sea, Talia Segal, Carolann Solebello, The Squid Jiggers, Hank Stone and Todd Evans, Heather Styka, Sweet Wednesday, Phil Teumin, Heidi Winzinger, The YaYas, and Brad Yoder.

The AcousticMusicScene.com showcase schedules appear below.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON

(Guest Hosts: Hank Stone and Sonny Ochs)

2:45 Hudson Valley Songwriters: James Durst, David Goldman, Stuart Kabak

3:30 Long Island Sounds: Jerry DeMeo, Grand Folk Railroad, Rough Folk

4:00. Phil Ochs Song Swap (hosted by Sonny Ochs):
Gathering Time, Fred Gillen, Jr., Kim & Reggie Harris, David Roth

FRIDAY NIGHT

(Hosted by Michael Kornfeld)

11:45: Freebo

12:00: Josh Joffen, LJ Booth, Chris Kokesh

12:30 Amazing Voices & Harmonies: Mara Levine, Gathering Time, Debra Cowan

1:00 Husbands & Wives: Friction Farm, The Levins, Twangtown Paramours

1:30: Canadian Songbirds: Layah Jane, Amy Campbell, Suzie Vinnick

2:00 Americana & Roots Country: Chatham Street, Loretta Hagen, Andrew McKnight,
Linda McRae

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

(Guest Hosts: Elaine Romanelli, Honor Finnegan and Rob Lytle)

2:00 Arlon Bennett (with John Sonntag), The Boxcar Lilies, Bethel Steele

2:30 Jerry DeMeo, Patti DeRosa, Jon Shain

300 Funny Folk: Honor Finnegan, Drew Jacobs, Lois Morton, Mark Allen Berube,
Carla Ulbrich

4:00 Folk You Should Know: Rob Lytle, Karyn Oliver, Marc Douglas Berardo

4:30 AcousticMusicScene.com’s Maine Event: Putnam Smith, Connor
Garvey, Sorcha

SATURDAY NIGHT

(Hosted by Michael Kornfeld)

11:45: James B. Dukehouse, Pesky J. Nixon, Spuyten Duyvil

12:30: Julie Kathryn, Ariana Gillis, Ellis

1:00: Buskin & Batteau, Krista Detor, The YaYas,

1:30 MMM Good Music: Moors & McCumber, Louise Mosrie, Zoe Mulford

2:00 All Keyed-Up: Jeffrey Paul Bobrick, Anna Dagmar, Marci Geller,
Elaine Romanelli, The Whispering Tree, Avi Wisnia

A nonprofit organization for those engaged in traditional, contemporary and multicultural folk music, dance and related performing arts, NERFA (www.nerfa.org) is the regional arm of Folk Alliance International that seeks to strengthen and advance organizational and individual initiatives through education, networking, advocacy, and professional and field development.