Bev Paul, the performer who helped turn Sugar Hill Records into an iconic brand of roots music, has died at the age of 76
Bev Paul, who ran the Sugar Hill Records label as general manager and became a major player in the modern roots music movement, died April 19 in Durham, North Carolina, after battling lung cancer. She was 76 years old.
Paul served as CEO of Sugar Hill in the 1990s and, after a brief stint in a management position, again in the 2000s. The label won more than a dozen Grammys in bluegrass, country and folk, including honors for artists such as Nickel Creek, Dolly Parton, Jerry Douglas and Tim O'Brien, who recorded for the company under her leadership. Other key artists she has supported include Sam Bush, Robert Earl Keen and Scott Miller.
Paul has served on the board of directors of the International Bluegrass Association on numerous occasions and was among the professionals who joined forces to create the Americana Music Association. In 2020, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum honored her contributions to the industry by selecting her as the subject of the annual Louise Scruggs Memorial Forum (video of that forum featuring Paul can be viewed here).
Many artists and business executives have spoken about Paul's influence on their career, label, or the world of roots.
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"Bev was my mentor", says Tracy Thomas, Jason Isbell's longtime manager, "She gave me a chance as a young publicist and changed my life. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be where I am today". There's a whole other group of industry people we like to call the "Sugar Hill Gang" who would probably tell you the same thing. She gave us all a chance and believed in us before we believed in ourselves".
Holly Lowman of Red Light Management also credits Paul with instilling key principles early in her career. "Bev Paul taught us to listen before anything else - image, marketing plan, commercial appeal", Lowman says. "If the music was great, if it was essential, if it spoke to you, then we had a story to tell. For Bev, music has always come first. Many of us from Sugar Hill are still making our way in the music business with that principle in mind, and I hope we do her proud".
Tim O'Brien, who hired Paul as his manager during her time at the label, says, "Bev was a benevolent presence at Sugar Hill Records. Her ability to pull opportunities out of the woodwork was her secret weapon. She wanted things to happen and just wanted to be there for the music. Bev was smart and generous enough to make both the artists and the label happy. She could let you know what the odds were, what you were up against in the record business, and then - yes - also help you overcome some of those odds".
Sam Bush, a mandolinist and progressive bluegrass pioneer whose Sugar Hill records were released from the mid-'80s through the mid-2000s, addressed Paul directly, expressing his sympathy. "Bev, you were a captain in shaping the marketing direction of New Grass Revival and then my Sugar Hill solo records, with your passion for the music and attention to detail", Bush says. "We couldn't have asked for a more understanding professional advocate and, above all, a better friend. You will forever be in our hearts and in our memories".
Barry Poss, founder and owner of Sugar Hill, vividly remembers his first meeting in 1991 with the woman who would become one of his key employees. "When Bev Paul was interviewing for the marketing director position at Sugar Hill Records, I said hello and she immediately began to explain in detail why I should hire her specifically", recalls Poss. "I didn't ask a single question and, as with many things with Bev, everything was no fuss, no unnecessary words and exactly on target. She learned the business, worked her way up to general manager, and we all thrived together, thanks in no small part to the reasons she laid out in the initial interview".
Molly Nagel Driessen, now with Nashville-based MMgt, spent 12 years working her way up the ladder at Sugar Hill, starting in the mailroom and ending as manager of the label's Nashville office and staff. She says, "I was one of many young people that Bev Paul took under her mighty wing. She was a real force who brought a deep love of music and dedication to artists to work every day and guided them in every decision. At the time, I didn't yet know what a feat that was. She was also fiercely dedicated to her people, supporting and identifying young talent on her team and nurturing them. I was incredibly lucky to have her as a mentor and advocate, to make mistakes under her watchful eye, to look up and see this strong woman crack the ceilings above me.
"Her legacy really cannot be overemphasized in our little corner of the industry, and I see it and am grateful for it every day. She truly was a titan", Nagel Driessen adds. "I hope she's smoking with Guy Clark right now, looking at this whole mess and laughing".
O'Brien has worked with Paul more than most: she was the first manager he hired, and after selling the Sugar Hill band in the late '90s, she briefly left and returned to work, fueling his career at all times and in all areas. He credits her with his Grammy win: "I had a record called 'Fiddler's Green' that came out, and it positioned it in such a way that it got on the Grammy contenders list and somehow won despite some pretty serious odds".
According to O'Brien, in Paula's case there were no barriers between fan, friend and performer. "She wanted to be around music and became friends with a lot of musicians. That was the way it was at Sugar Hill, but Bev interacted with the artists more than some of the staff. Sure, we played a lot in North Carolina (where the label was located) and I saw her there a lot, but she also came to Nashville and other events I did around the country. She worked in a marginal part of the popular entertainment industry - meaning it's popular music, but not as popular as, say, pop music - but she just loved the music. And she would go around to different venues and go to festivals and stuff like that and check out what was going on and who was listening and who was playing and see how it worked to try to get you somewhere and help you find the avenues where you could maybe be successful.
"We all loved a lot of stuff, a lot of music", O'Brien continues, "and we'd sit around after gigs and have a drink or a smoke and then talk about all the music we liked. Ricky Skaggs left the label and had a lot of success, but then new people like Robert Earl Keen came in and they were excited about it. It was a small store and everybody there was really interested in music. I'm sure it was a good job because they were interested in music, the people who worked there, but it probably wasn't the highest paying job anybody could get. If you weren't into music, it probably wasn't interesting". Rounder (Sugar Hill's closest competitor) got bigger, but she followed her heart, discovered that this label was putting out what she liked, and helped it become even more like what she liked, you know?
"I'm sure anyone in the business wants to have a plus in the books and make money, and I suppose you can hope to make a lot of money somewhere, but basically they were content to develop the scene - the scene already existed and they really expanded it. Barry, the founder of Sugar Hill, had his own vision that these were musicians who had one foot in tradition and the other moving forward. And if you look at the artists they signed, some of them had already recorded for the majors and gone back to independents, and others were new artists who were really hitting their stride", including Keane, who O'Brien calls one of the more contemporary singer-songwriters on the scene, which he believes she naturally gravitates toward. "And it was people like Bev who made that happen".
Paula's childhood was spent in Bethlehem, PA, but she is said to have fallen in love with the South when she traveled with her father to a reunion at Duke University in Durham. She moved there for college and got her first exposure to the music industry at a folk music coffeehouse on campus and then worked at the Gaslight Cafe in Fayetteville, NC. After moving to the Raleigh-Durham area, she became an employee of radio station WQDR and worked in the office of Record Bar, a national music retailer, where she met up-and-coming talents like The Judds and Alan Jackson before they became household names.
At this time she lived in Raleigh-Durham until coming to Sugar Hill in 1991, at which time she met her future husband, Bobby Paul, who survives her.
Jed Healey, the current executive director of the Americana Music Association, who came to the post after the organization's founding, pays tribute to Paul's role as one of the forces that made it all happen, as well as her great legacy in music. "Bev Paul was a fearless advocate for the artists we love and they loved her", he says. "Her death came too soon".