Sheila Kay Adams is an American storyteller, author, and musician from the Sodom Laurel community in

Madison County, North Carolina Madison County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 21,193. Its county seat is Marshall. Madison County is part of the Asheville, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. History ...

Background

A seventh-generation ballad singer, storyteller, and claw-hammer banjo player, Sheila Kay Adams was born and raised in the Sodom Laurel community of Madison County, North Carolina, an area renowned for its unbroken tradition of unaccompanied singing of traditional southern Appalachian ballads that dates back to the early Scots/Irish and English Settlers in the mid-17th century. Adams learned to sing from her great-aunt Dellie Chandler Norton and other notable singers in the community such as Dillard Chandler and members of the Wallin Family. She began performing in public in her teens, and throughout her career she has performed at festivals, events, music camps, and workshops around the United States and the United Kingdom. In 1975, Adams graduated from

Mars Hill College Mars Hill University is a Private university, private Christian Liberal arts education, liberal arts university in Mars Hill, North Carolina, United States. The university offers 35 undergraduate majors and includes a school of nursing and grad ...

. In 2003 she was named Alumna of the Year and later received a LifeWorks recognition in appreciation for her shared commitment to service and responsibility, presented at the college's LifeWorks 150 Alumni Celebration in April 2007. After teaching in the North Carolina public schools for seventeen years, Adams turned to full-time music and storytelling.

Music, storytelling, and performance

Adams performs ballads from English, Scottish, and Irish traditions as she learned them from her ancestors, as well as innovating other tunes with a signature drop-thumb

clawhammer Clawhammer, sometimes called down-picking, overhand, or most commonly known as frailing, is a distinctive banjo playing style and a common component of American old-time music. The style likely descends from that of West African lutes, suc ...

style on the five-string banjo, an ability which has won her recognition and awards. Adams' extensive knowledge of balladry has also been featured in

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's ''

The Thistle & Shamrock ''The Thistle & Shamrock'' is a weekly American syndicated radio program, named after the national emblems of Scotland and Ireland, specializing in Celtic music. It is heard on 380 National Public Radio (NPR) stations, and is available internatio ...

'' program with

Fiona Ritchie Fiona Karen Ritchie MBE (born 1960) is a Scottish radio broadcaster of ''The Thistle & Shamrock'', a weekly, Celtic music program for 40 years on National Public Radio (NPR). She curates ThistleRadio, a 24/7 web-based Celtic music channel. S ...

. Adams' ballad singing and musical performances have also been featured internationally, including the

Celtic Colours Celtic Colours International Festival is a Celtic music festival held annually in October on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. First held in 1997, the festival has featured musicians from the Celtic world and attracted visitors to Cape ...

International Festival in

Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (, formerly '; or '; ) is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18.7% of Nova Scotia's total area. Although ...

, Nova Scotia, Canada. As a storyteller Adams often appears at major festivals including the

National Storytelling Festival The National Storytelling Festival is held the first full weekend of October in Jonesborough, Tennessee at the International Storytelling Center. The National Storytelling Festival was founded by Jimmy Neil Smith, a high school journalism teacher, ...

Jonesborough, Tennessee Jonesborough (; historically also Jonesboro) is a town in and the county seat of Washington County, Tennessee, in the Southeastern United States. Its population was 5,860 as of 2020. It is "Tennessee's oldest town". Jonesborough is part of the ...

. She also performed at the 1976 and 2003

Smithsonian Folklife Festival The Smithsonian Folklife Festival, launched in 1967, is an international exhibition of living cultural heritage presented annually in the summer in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is held on the National Mall for two weeks around the Fo ...

as part of The Bicentennial Celebration and Appalachia: Heritage and Harmony. Adams has been a regular performer with "A Swannanoa Solstice" in

Asheville, North Carolina Asheville ( ) is a city in Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. Located at the confluence of the French Broad River, French Broad and Swannanoa River, Swannanoa rivers, it is the county seat of Buncombe County. It is the most populou ...

, alongside such artists as

Al Petteway Al Petteway was an American guitarist known primarily for his acoustic fingerstyle work both as a soloist and with well-known folk artists such as Amy White, Tom Paxton, Jethro Burns, Jonathan Edwards, Cheryl Wheeler, Debi Smith, Bonnie Rideout, ...

, Amy White, and Robin Bullock. In 2004 she appeared at Art6 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia in conjunction with an exhibition of Sodom Laurel photographs by Rob Amberg. Adams performs and teaches regularly at the Swannanoa Gathering, a series of week-long workshops in various folk arts held in July and August on the campus of

Warren Wilson College Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private liberal arts college in Swannanoa, North Carolina. It is known for its curriculum that combines academics, work, and service as every student must complete a required course of study, work an on-campus j ...

, near Asheville, North Carolina. She has taught workshops in banjo playing, unaccompanied singing, and storytelling.

Published works

In 1995, the

University of North Carolina Press The University of North Carolina Press (or UNC Press), founded in 1922, is a not-for-profit university press associated with the University of North Carolina. It was the first university press founded in the southern United States. It is a mem ...

published Adams' first book, ''Come Go Home With Me'', a semi-autobiographical collection of short stories. The book was praised as "pure mountain magic" by ''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' magazine and was a winner of the 1997 Clark Cox Historical Fiction Award, North Carolina Society of Historians. Her second book was the novel ''My Old True Love'', published in 2004 by

Algonquin Books Workman Publishing Company, Inc., is an American publisher of trade books founded by Peter Workman. The company consists of imprints Workman, Workman Children's, Workman Calendars, Artisan, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill and Algonquin Young R ...

. It was a finalist for the SIBA Book Award and praised by ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus. The magazine's publisher, Kirkus Media, is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fiction, no ...

'' as "Deeply satisfying storytelling propelled by the desires of full-bodied, prickly characters set against a landscape rendered in all its beauty and harshness."

Awards and honors

Adams was named among eight North Carolina artists to receive the 2016 North Carolina Heritage Award for outstanding contributions to the state's cultural heritage. In 2013, Adams was one of nine individuals to receive a

National Heritage Fellowship The National Heritage Fellowship is a lifetime honor presented to master folk and traditional artists by the National Endowment for the Arts. Similar to Japan's Living National Treasure award, the Fellowship is the United States government's h ...

from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

. In 1998 Adams received the Brown Hudson Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society in recognition of her valuable contributions to the study of North Carolina folk traditions.

Discography

Adams has recorded several albums of ballads, songs, and stories including: * ''Loving Forward, Loving Back'' (1985) * ''Spring In the Burton Cove'' (1990) * ''Don't Get Above Your Raising'' (1992) * ''Christmas on the Mountain'' (1998) * ''What Ever Happened to John Parrish's Boy?'' (1999) * ''Come Go Home With Me'' (audio book) * ''My Dearest Dear'' (2000) * ''All The Other Fine Things'' (2004) * ''Live at the International Storytelling Festival'' (2007) * ''Legacy I: Banjo Tunes'' (2014) * ''Legacy II: Traditional Ballads'' (2016) * ''Legacy III'' (2017) Storytelling Live 2013 International Storytelling Festival

Filmography

* ''Last of the Mohicans'' (1992); credited as the "humming woman" under the name Sheila Adams Barnhill * ''Songcatcher'' (2000); credited three times—first for her performance in the film as "Barn band banjo player", second for her work as a vocal coach for the cast, and third as the film's official advisor on traditional balladry. * ''Madison County Project: Documenting the Sound'' (2006), a documentary film about ballad singers in Madison County; Adams appears as herself.

References

External links

Sheila Kay Adams Official WebsiteNational Public Radio: ''Thistle & Shamrock'' with host Fiona Richie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Sheila Kay 1953 births Living people American storytellers American women storytellers People from Madison County, North Carolina Mars Hill University alumni National Heritage Fellowship winners North Carolina Heritage Award winners