Sugar Hill Records closes in Durham, NC

Lynda Wittig Dawson reports: 'Effective this Friday, the Durham office of Sugar Hill is closing and the label is relocating to the existing Nashville location. Most of us in Durham have not been offered to move with the company, as the Welk Music Group [which bought Sugar Hill in 1998] is streamlining operations. Although we all hope the transition will mean good things for the label, it's a sad week for everyone here.'

Lynda, who also picks rhythm guitar, sings lead, and writes songs for the band Kickin Grass, based in Raleigh, NC, sends this link to a story on the closure in the Raleigh News & Observer.

Meanwhile, a forthcoming release on the label is by the Nashville-based Infamous Stringdusters, one of the hottest new young bands on the US bluegrass scene, who make their Sugar Hill Records debut on 13 February with Fork in the road. All customers who preorder will be entered for a special prize draw, in which the winner will get twenty sets of D'Addario EXP17 Medium Gauge EXP Coated Acoustic guitar strings, a Planet Waves chromatic tuner, and a Planet Waves guitar strap.