Sheila Kay Adams
October13th & 14th, 2006

SHEILA KAY ADAMS introduced the art of storytelling to audiences at the We Piddle Around Theater in October 2005.
Her performances laid the foundation for what we hope will become a storytellin’ tradition at the theater.

We welcome Sheila Kay Adams back to the We Piddle Around Theater.
If you’ve heard her before, we need not say more.
If not, let us just say that, if you like what we do at the We Piddle Around Theater, you’ll love Sheila Kay Adams.

Sheila Kay Adams comes from a small mountain community in Madison County, North Carolina. For seven generation her family has maintained the tradition of passing down the English, Scottish and Irish ballads that came over with her ancestors in the mid 1700ís. Sheila learned these ballads from her older relatives, primarily from her great-aunt, Dellie Chandler Norton and cousin, Cas Wallin.
In performance, Sheila sings the traditional Appalachian ballads in the same style in which they were handed down to her ­ the same intensity, the same profound feeling for the ballad and in a powerful, strong voice.
Audiences love to hear Sheila tell stories about her childhood and the community in which she grew up. She compiled several of these stories in the book, Come Go Home With Me, a 1997 winner of the North Carolina Historical Society’s award for historical fiction.  
Sheila’s latest book, My Old True Love is a fictional novel based on a true family story. It was a finalist for the Southeastern Booksellers Association’s 2004 Book of the Year Award and a finalist for the Appalachian Writers Association’s 2004 Book of the Year Award.   Released at the same time was a CD titled "All the Other Fine Things" of fiddle tunes, ballads, and shape-note hymns that serves as a companion for the book.
Sheila is also known for her award winning accomplishments on the 5-string banjo. She plays a clean drop-thumb style called clawhammer and has taught at numerous music camps throughout the country. She and her husband, Jim Taylor have several recordings which feature traditional fiddle tunes from the Civil War era.
She has been a featured performer in several documentary films, news and magazine articles, and was a technical advisor and singing coach for the award winning film,
"Songcatcher." Her CD recordings, "My Dearest Dear," "Whatever Happened to John Parrish’s Boy" have all been favorable reviewed several trade magazines.
Sheila has performed at major festivals, including the National Storytelling Festival at Jonesborough, Tenn., colleges and universities and toured with the acclaimed ŒSisters of the South’ production and has toured England. After teaching17 years in the North Carolina Public School System, she decided to pursue a career writing and sharing the music, stories and heritage of her Appalachian culture.
She and her family still reside in the county in which she was born. In April 1998, Sheila was chosen 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 once said, "She might not always know where she’s going, but she sure knows where she comes from."