Sheila K. Adams + Nest of Singing Birds

A “nest of singing birds” was the name Cecil Sharp gave to Madison County, North Carolina, when he visited the area in 1916 to collect the ancient ballads that had survived there for generations, being gently passed down knee-to-knee and warm hand to warm hand. Madison is still known for this rich tradition that spans at least nine generations.

The moniker has now been adopted by a cooperative of singers, known as the Nest of Singing Birds, in the region that are keeping this art form alive.

Centering around Sheila Kay Adams, the matriarch of the traditional music community in Western North Carolina, the group is led by her second cousin Donna Ray Norton, one of the eighth generation of their family to keep these songs of love and loss, and the stories that surround them, alive.

Sheila Kay is a 7th generation ballad singer and a national folk legend, icon and treasure. She has been recognized with the Brown-Hudson Award from the North Carolina Folklore Society (1998), as a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow (2013), a North Carolina Arts Council Heritage Award (2016), and, most recently, the United States Artists Award (2026). Her work is featured in the Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and she has been featured in multiple folk celebrations and festivals including the Smithsonian Folklife Festivals for the Bicentennial Celebration and the Appalachia: Heritage and Harmony celebration. She is a noted banjoist, storyteller, educator, and writer.

Donna Ray Norton is an 8th generation ballad singer, educator, and preservationist. She has been recognized as a South Arts Emerging Artist for 2026. She was also the recipient of Bascom Lamar Lunsford Youth Award for Balladry in 2005 and a grantee of the NC Arts Council. She is the granddaughter of celebrated old-time musician, Byard Ray. She has been a panelist for AmericanaFest and a spokesperson for Western North Carolina recovery from Hurricane Helene.

Together, they share one of the oldest unbroken non-indigenous oral traditions in the United States.