Storyteller Adams set for Christmas performance

Published 10:00 pm Saturday, November 8, 2008

Sheila Kay Adams will return to the We Piddle Around Theater in Brundidge as the featured performer in the “Christmas on the Mountain” storytelling concert on Dec. 12 and 13.

Tickets for the storytelling concert will go on sale at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 12 at Rue’s Antiques in downtown Brundidge or by calling 334-735-3125.

Tickets are $25 each and include the pre-show music, an old-fashioned Christmas “supper” and the storytelling concert.

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Sheila Kay Adams is a master storyteller and seventh generation ballad singer from the mountains of Western North Carolina. She will tell original seasonal stories and sing the carols of Christmas the way they were sung in the mountains 200 years ago.

“Sheila Kay Adams has been to our theater three times and she helped lay the foundation for a storytelling tradition at the We Piddle Around Theater,” said Johnny Steed, vice president of the sponsoring Brundidge Historical Society. “She tells stories and sings story songs that are in keeping with what we do at our folklife theater. As we’ve said many times, if you like what we do at the We Piddle Around Theater, you’ll love Sheila Kay Adams.”

Dinah Kelsey said she first saw Sheila Kay Adams perform at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee in 2004.

“She is an outstanding storyteller who tells stories that we can relate to,” Kelsey said. “She can make you laugh and she can make you cry. Either way, Sheila Kay Adams will entertain you.”

Sheila Kay Adams has been a featured performer in several documentary films, news and magazine articles. She was the song coach for the movie “Songcatcher” and was co-host and co-producer of “Over Home,” a show for Public Radio.

She has traveled extensively, performing at major festivals, colleges and universities, as well as several tours in the United States, England and Ireland.

Her novel, My Old True Love, based on a family story was published in 2004 and was on the Book Sense Best Seller list for four weeks.

Sheila Kay Adams 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.

She taught public school for 17 years before making the decision to pursue a career sharing the music, stories and heritage of her mountain culture.