Sugar Hill Records is excited to share the label’s 2014 International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) nominees. A wide breadth of talent was highlighted in the acoustic music genre and Sugar Hill’s roster and catalog earned nods for instrumentalists and liners, as well as a special upcoming International Bluegrass Hall of Fame induction.
The 25th Annual IBMA Awards will be held on October 2, 2014 at Raleigh’s Memorial Auditorium. Sugar Hill’s Lee Ann Womack and multi-instrumentalist Jerry Douglas will co-host this year’s presentation. (Lee Ann Womack will unveil her first Sugar Hill Records release, The Way I’m Livin’, next month.)
The Definitive Doc Watson has been recognized as a nominee for Best Liner Notes for a Recorded Project. Two different writers were called upon to craft the extensive liner notes, Sugar Hill/Vanguard’s own Fred Jasper and noted roots music journalist Derek Halsey.
As stated in the liners, “Fred Jasper’s love of Doc Watson’s music eventually led him to seek a Sugar Hill Records internship in 1996,” Jasper has been an integral part of the Welk Music Group and sharing its music with the world ever since. Halsey is an award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Bluegrass Unlimited, The Mountain Times, The Bluegrass Situation, City Beat and Gritz Music Magazine, a magazine which he also helped to launch. The Definitive Doc Watson is the first compilation to jointly anthologize the Vanguard Records and Sugar Hill Records periods of Watson’s discography and covers the years 1962-2005.
Bryan Sutton has again been nominated for Guitar Player of the Year. Known for his incredible musicianship and as a “go-to” for a variety of artists, Bryan Sutton has been honored as Guitar Player of the Year by the association six times over. In addition to picking, Sutton was also acknowledged as a co-producer for “Wait A Little Longer Please Jesus;” the track was nominated for Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year. In April, Bryan Sutton released his fourth Sugar Hill album, Into My Own, and he will spend the remainder of 2014 on the road with Hot Rize.
“King of Newgrass” Sam Bush was also nominated as Mandolin Player of the Year during the ceremony he co-hosted with Jim Lauderdale. Bush, a renowned mandolin and fiddle player, has enjoyed a more than 40 year career that boasts multiple IBMA and Grammy wins along with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Instrumentalist from the Americana Music Association.
During the press conference IBMA also announced that Seldom Scene, Sugar Hill Records catalog artist, whose original line-up included Ben Eldridge, John Starling, Mike Auldridge, Tom Gray and John Duffey, will be inducted into the International Bluegrass Hall of Fame. Sugar Hill released more than ten albums by Seldom Scene from 1978 until 2007 and the original line-up was featured in the commemorative releases 15th Anniversary Celebration (1988) and Scene 20: 20th Anniversary Concert (1992).
In 1978, Barry Poss launched Sugar Hill Records, a label with a strong identity and a “signature sound,” that stood for great artists and quality production. Cited as “one of twenty-one labels that changed the world … reinventing country music” by Pulse, Sugar Hill Records is a Welk Music Group company. With its headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, Sugar Hill remains a major player with deep roots in bluegrass and Americana genres.
From festivals to record store stacks and all points in between, music fans will recognize the artists on Sugar Hill for their musicianship, energy and integrity.
For more information on Sugar Hill and its roster, please visit sugarhillrecords.com.
