Sheila Kay Adams

Artist Biography

Born and raised in the Sodom Laurel community of Madison County, North Carolina, Sheila Kay Adams is a seventh-generation ballad singer, storyteller, and claw-hammer banjo player. Originating in the border country between England and Scotland, the ballads that Adams sing have been passed down through her family since the early 1700s, when Adams’ ancestors first settled in Appalachia. Learning how to sing as a child from her great-aunt, Adams has developed an illustrious resume showcasing, documenting, and advocating for Western North Carolina’s unaccompanied ballad singing tradition. She has performed at festivals, workshops, and other events all across the United States and the United Kingdom, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., and the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Her songs and stories have been recorded for several albums: My Dearest Dear (2000), Other Fine Things (2004), and Live at the International Storytelling Festival (2007). Her two books, Come Go Home With Me (1997) and My Old True Love (2004), have garnered praise from Life Magazine, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and other outlets.

A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship (2013) and North Carolina Heritage Award (2015), Adams has complemented international acclaim with deep, local commitment to her community. She continues to mentor the new generation of unaccompanied ballad singers on the history and technique of the tradition. With support of the In These Mountains Folk and Traditional Arts Master Artist Fellowship, Adams intends to write a book telling the story of her ancestors’ interactions with folklorists, documentarians, and song-collectors since the early 20th Century. “To my knowledge,” says Adams, “this book will be the first publication of a cultural insider’s view on this complicated relationship between the singers who lived and breathed within the culture and those drawn to them from faraway places.”