All week I was in a dreary state of denial about Sugar Hill Records closing its Durham, NC headquarters and cutting staff in Nashville. Many reasons. First is that this company retrenchment went down at the same time that Bush’s jaw droppingly bad ideas for fixing the Iraq fiasco became widely known, and I can only handle so much bad news at once. But chiefly it’s because I love the label, its staff, the music that it has put out over the last 25 years, the fact that it was based in my home town, and the decent way that I’ve seen them treat their artists.
Sugar Hill’s artistic track record has been stellar.
It’s been a happy label home to an unbelievable roster of important roots artists: Doc Watson, The Nashville Bluegrass Band, Nickel Creek, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Tim O’Brien and many many more. It is one of a tiny handful of labels that I go out of my way to hear every release, with very high expectations every time. I’m almost never disappointed by a Sugar Hill album. The label makes up a significant portion of my record collection and of my Nashville music business friends.
Two key losses from the Nashville office hit me particularly hard as a music fan and music writer. Kim Fowler has been a dear and able publicist for the label, taking care of the needs of artists from Scott Miller to Dolly Parton herself. She’s always done a spectacular job and shown incredible grace in all our dealings. Also gone is Steve Fishell, one of the finest A&R minds in Nashville and a stellar guy who passionately loves music and the people who make it. Reportedly the very talented Gary Paczosa will take over as Sugar Hill’s head of A&R. It breaks my heart that one’s gain is another’s loss, and it sure would have been nice to see Paczosa and Fishell run the label’s talent scouting and recording together. They would have been an incredible team.
There are no expected roster cuts, and for that I’m grateful. A focused, consolidated office in Nashville might be best in the long run. And I don’t think that Welk Music Group, which bought Sugar Hill a few years ago, will shut the imprint down, but history is too full of marquis, historic labels that were subsumed and washed away that I’m not certain of anything. But for the sake of the wonderful people I’ve been able to know and work with at Sugar Hill, I wish everybody well.
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