Past Appearances

Newport Folk Festival
Earl Scruggs Festival
LEAF Festival
Folk Alliance Conference
Grey Eagle
Folk Alliance International
Hed-Hi Studios (Charleston)
Cat's Cradle Backroom
Birthplace of Country Music Museum
Raleigh Wide Open
American Folklore Society Conference Warren Haynes Christmas Jam

Have supported…
Sierra Ferrell
Tim O’Brien
Iris Dement
Ketch Secor

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, being gently passed down knee to knee and warm hand to warm hand. The county is still known for this rich tradition that goes back at least nine generations.

The moniker has now been adopted by a cooperative of singers 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. Through activities like Ballad Night at the Old Marshall Jail and performances at festivals and performing arts centers across the United States and the world, these a cappella songs are shared from the hearts of the singers to an ever-expanding community of people searching for the magic that abides inside this viable living, breathing tradition not yet lost to time and technology.