Dear PineCone Family,
We lost one of our own this week. Barry Poss passed away early Tuesday morning after a long illness. He was 79 years old. Barry was a member of PineCone and a pioneer in the world of bluegrass, old-time, roots and Americana music.
Barry came down to North Carolina for graduate school in the late 1970s but was seduced by the banjo and never looked back. He worked for County Records and later founded Sugar Hill Records in Durham. He was at the center of an incredible catalog of music including Doc Watson, Tim O’Brien, Nickel Creek, Tommy Jarrell and Fred Cockerham. Like many growing up in North Carolina, Barry’s work shaped my understanding of music.
I got to know Barry during my time at WUNC, where he served as a member of the Board of Directors and a frequent source for me as a reporter. I was always pestering him for stories about Doc and Merle, or Tommy Jarrell. He once told me in an interview that Doc Watson embodied everything that he’d ever hoped for with Sugar Hill Records. But Barry was quick to deflect attention and ask how I was doing. I’ll never forget how he’d pass me encouraging notes during board meetings like school chums might have in junior high. Those notes turned into lunches, calls and text message threads that were often overrun by banjo jokes. Barry was always quick to laugh and loved making others smile. He was just really fun to be around.
Barry was incredibly kind to me and for that I am forever grateful. I will miss him very much.
The world was a better place because of his presence.
All the best,
David Brower