Biography
Sheila Kay Adams comes from a small mountain community in western North Carolina. For seven generations her family has maintained the tradition of passing down the English, Scottish, and Irish ballads that came over with her ancestors in the late 1700’s. Sheila learned these ballads from her relatives, primarily from her great-aunt, Dellie Chandler Norton.

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.

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.

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...”