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.”

As the names above suggest, the Philadelphia Folk Festival features an eclectic mix of traditional and contemporary music that stretches the boundaries of folk, helping to broaden its appeal and reach a new generation of listeners.

There really is something for everyone this year,” says Richard Kardon of Point Entertainment, the festival’s artistic director. “And collaboration will once again be the key. “Saturday is so packed full of amazing acts [the rocking lineup includes Little Feat, John Hiatt and the Combo, Steve Earle and The Dukes, Lucinda Williams and Wanda Jackson] that we’ve decided to do away with the Afternoon Concert and roll straight through,” adds his partner, Jesse Lundy.

“There will be continuous musical performances from 11 a.m. through midnight, with workshops, showcases and Main Stage events,” he continues. This kind of scheduling has also enabled ticketing to be streamlined so that this year there will be one ticket for each day, as well as an All-Festival ticket that provides discounted admission for all three days. Since fewer acts have been booked than in years past, artists also will have more stage time and increased opportunities for collaboration – those unique musical moments that make festivals like this one so special.

But that’s not all. There’s dancing to bands on the 3,500 square-foot covered pavilion known as the Lobby Stage as well as an open-air juried craft gallery where you can watch a number of artisans at work and purchase their creations. An array of children’s activities and kid-oriented musicians in the shady Dulcimer Grove also is part of what is the longest continuously running U.S. festival of its kind.

There’s also a festival within the festival for those who choose to camp onsite and enjoy some late-night camaraderie and revelry. The 40-acre campground — chock-a-block with tents — is home to a unique late-night scene, with singing by campfires and jamming into the early morning hours.

In addition to a number of talented acts performing on the Martin Guitar Main Stage, to be hosted for the 51st consecutive year by Shay, many other fine artists will strut their stuff on the Camp, Lobby and Workshop stages during the festival.

World Café’s David Dye hosts a special concert on the Camp Stage – exclusively for all-festival camping ticket holders on Thursday night, August 16. Local artists will be featured in both a Philadelphia Music Co-Op Showcase on Friday afternoon (The Whiskeyhicken Boys, Kala Jojo, Zach Stack) and a Philly Local showcase on Saturday morning hosted by WXPN’s Helen Leicht (Aaron & The Spell, Carsie Blanton, Harper Blynn and Andrew Lipke). The Philadelphia Jug Band also makes a festival appearance, as do campground favorites and winners of the recent Unsung Heroes Contest: Reverend TJ McGlinchey, The Karmic Repair Co., and hand-pan player Dante Bucci.Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, who so impressed festival-goers last year, close out this year’s event on Sunday evening.

For more information about the festival and to order tickets, visit www.folkfest.org or call the Philadelphia Folk Festival at 800-556-FOLK.

In addition to the award winners who were selected by AMA members from among a group of nominees whose eligibility was based on work released between May 1, 2009 and March 31, 2010, Lifetime Achievement Award honorees also were recognized. They include Wanda Jackson, the queen of rockabilly and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member (Performance); John Mellencamp, the gritty, blue-collar honky-tonk heartland rocker (Songwriting); Luke Lewis, chairman of Universal Music Group Nashville, which counts Lost Highway among its imprints (Executive); Greg Leisz, a noted lap and pedal steel guitarist and mandolinist, whose work can be heard on recordings by Lucinda Williams, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and more (Instrumental); and Brian Ahern, who has produced albums by Emmylou Harris, George Jones, Rodney Crowell, Jesse Winchester and Ricky Skaggs, among others (Producer/Engineer).

Jim Lauderdale, himself a two-time Americana Honors & Awards recipient, hosted the awards show that also featured a band led by Buddy Miller, last year’s big winner — with awards for artist, album and song of the year. To cap off the awards show, Robert Plant, the former Led Zeppelin vocalist — who rocked the Americana music world in 2008 when he and contemporary bluegrass star Alison Krauss teamed up on the multi-award-winning album Raising Sand — treated the audience to a performance with his current touring Band of Joy (featuring Miller, Patty Griffin and Darrel Scott).

The Honors and Awards ceremony was a highlight of the 11th Annual Americana Festival and Conference, a four-day-and-night event that continues through Saturday, Sept. 11. It features plenty of learning and networking opportunities, as well as more than 100 music showcases by new and veteran artists at various venues throughout Nashville.

“Very quietly, Americana has become the fastest rising music community today,” maintains Jed Hilly, the Americana Music Association’s executive director. Established in 1999, the professional trade association (www.americanamusic.org) is dedicated to building and promoting the Americana genre and the individuals who participate in the industry.