Sheila Kay Adams

SHEILA KAY ADAMS

In performance, Sheila sings the traditional Appalachian ballads in the same style in which they were handed down to her. She sounds remarkably like her older kinspeople - the same intensity, the same profound feeling for the ballad, yet with such a clear, strong voice.

Audiences love to hear Sheila tell stories about her childhood and the community in which she grew up. Under the direction of Lee Smith, Sheila compiled several of these stories that were published by the University of North Carolina Press. The book, titled Come Go Home With Me, was a 1997 winner of the North Carolina Historical Society's award for historical fiction.

She is also well known for her award winning accomplishments on the 5-string banjo. Sheila plays a clean, drop-thumb style, called clawhammer and has taught at numerous music camps throughout the country. She has recorded several instrumental tapes with her husband, Jim Taylor, which feature traditional fiddle tunes from the Civil War era. She has been a featured performer in several documentary films, news articles, magazine articles, and was co-host and co-producer of "Over Home", a show for Public Radio. Her two cassette recordings, Loving Forward, Loving Back, and A Spring in the Burton Cove, both of which contain traditional ballads, banjo tunes and her own compositions, as well as her story tape, Don't Git Above Your Raising, have been reviewed favorably by THE OLD-TIME HERALD magazine. Her recent CD, titled My Dearest Dear, is also a collection of ballads, banjo, and a much requested original piece co-written with her cousin, Janet Crowe and husband, Jim Taylor.

Sheila has traveled extensively. She has performed at major festivals, colleges, and universities, as well as several tours in the United States. Sheila has also toured in England. She is a modern, educated woman who after seventeen years in the North Carolina Public School System made the decision to pursue a career sharing the music, stories, and heritage of her culture.

In the summer of 1999, director Maggie Greenwald recruited Sheila to act as technical advisor and singing coach to the cast of the critically acclaimed, award winning motion picture, "Songcatcher", which premiered in the summer of 2001.

Sheila has three children and is passing the traditions on to them. She is married to Jim Taylor, also a traditional musician and performer. She and her family still reside in the county in which she was born; her roots are well planted in her Appalachian mountain home. In April, 1998, Sheila was selected to receive the prestigious North Carolina Folklore Society's Brown-Hudson Award in recognition of her valuable contributions to the study of North Carolina folklore. As her Great-Aunt has said, "She may not always know where she's going, but she sure knows where she comes from..."

Sheila Kay Adams is available for concerts, storytelling, performances, speaking engagements and workshops.


Media by Sheila Kay Adams:

Come Go Home With ME

Come Go Home With Me   Audio Version   Four CDs

My Dearest Dear

What Ever Happened To John Parrish's Boy?

My Own True Love

All The Other Fine Things