Record label moves on

Durham office is closing as owner cuts costs

DURHAM -- The Triangle's record-label landscape is contracting, and the latest departure will leave a huge void.

Sugar Hill Records, the Grammy-winning bluegrass powerhouse that has been home to artists including Doc Watson and Nickel Creek, is leaving Durham for Nashville, Tenn., a cost-cutting move.

Most of Sugar Hill's nine Durham employees will be out of work as soon as the end of this week. Bev Paul, the label's general manager in Durham, declined to comment.

Molly Nagel, a Sugar Hill spokeswoman in Nashville, said Tuesday that some of the Durham employees have been offered jobs there. But she would not say who or how many.

"We're not commenting on staff changes yet because we don't know who's going to do what," Nagel said. "Depending on the situation, there may be folks continuing to work out of that office until they can relocate. It's definitely going to be a change.

"I started in the mailroom at Sugar Hill right out of UNC, so it's sad. But it seems like the right thing to do."

In Nashville, a scaled-down Sugar Hill will operate alongside Vanguard Records. Both labels are owned by California-based Welk Music Group, which bought Sugar Hill in 1998.

Sugar Hill started on a shoestring in 1978, run out of founder Barry Poss' apartment in Durham. An old-time-music enthusiast, Poss named his label after an old fiddle tune he used to play. Sugar Hill scored its first major success in 1983, earning a gold album (500,000 copies sold) for Ricky Skaggs' "Don't Cheat in Our Hometown."

The label broadened beyond bluegrass with country, blues and rock acts, including Robert Earl Keen, Sonny Landreth and Scott Miller. Welk bought Sugar Hill in 1998 but kept local management in place. More success followed.

Nickel Creek, a photogenic young trio from California, had two gold records on Sugar Hill and cracked the top 20 of the Billboard album charts.

Dolly Parton made an acclaimed series of Sugar Hill bluegrass albums, which sold well and won Grammy Awards. Sugar Hill also has four Grammy nominations in two categories this year.

Keith Weston, host and producer of "Back Porch Music" on radio station WUNC, 91.5-FM, has come to rely on Sugar Hill as a reliable gatekeeper of quality.

"I can't imagine a 'Back Porch' show going more than 15 minutes without playing something on Sugar Hill," Weston said. "It's such a staple of our programming and what we do. I'm certainly going to miss them being here. They've been this great little label based in Durham, doing great things for traditional country and old-time music."

Unfortunately, Sugar Hill has not escaped the malaise gripping the entire record industry. The label hasn't had a breakout commercial act since Nickel Creek -- which is going on indefinite hiatus this year. That set the stage for Welk to close the Durham office. The bad news came down Monday.

"We all knew we'd been struggling a bit," said Lindsay Reid, Sugar Hill's manager of radio promotion. "Last year was not a great one for sales, and it's a difficult time in the industry. But we weren't prepared for the magnitude and timing of the announcement. It's certainly a bummer. This is all I've ever wanted to do. It's just really sad that Sugar Hill in Durham is over that quick."

As for the label's future, history is not encouraging.

In 2000, Walt Disney shut down the Carrboro offices of Mammoth Records, moved the operation to New York and merged it with Disney-owned Hollywood Records. Within a few years, Mammoth essentially has ceased to exist.

But Poss, who has been Sugar Hill's semiretired "chairman emeritus" in recent years, is more optimistic about its prospects.

"I know Sugar Hill will continue to thrive, with Nashville as its new headquarters," Poss said. "Nashville's gain is, sadly, the Triangle's loss. I founded Sugar Hill here, the label grew up here and being here meant a lot to me. Sugar Hill enjoyed a great mutual support relationship with this community."