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

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

A “nest of singing birds” was the name Cecil Sharp gave to the Sodom Laurel Community of Madison County, NC when he visited the area in 1916 to collect the ancient ballads that had survived there, being gently passed from hand to hand and knee to knee. 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 8th generation of their family to keep alive these songs of love and loss and the stories surrounding them. Through activities like Ballad Night at the Old Marshall Jail, and through performances at festivals and performing arts center across the US and the world, these a cappella songs are shared between the singers and also the wider community, offering exposure to a viable living, breathing tradition not yet lost to time and technology.