Sheila Kay Adams. Photo by Zach Welch
By Emma Castleberry
Nest of Singing Birds is bringing centuries of Appalachian tradition to a wider audience with the digital release of The Marshall Sessions, making the collective’s first album available on streaming platforms.
Led by eighth-generation Madison County ballad singer Donna Ray Norton, the recording captures 13 traditional Appalachian ballads performed live inside The Old Marshall Jail Hotel before Hurricane Helene devastated Marshall. It was originally released as a limited-run vinyl album late last year.
“I hope listeners hear these songs about love, loss, humor, heartbreak and resilience and that they realize those emotions really haven’t changed all that much,” says Norton. “I also hope people understand that this isn’t a tradition that disappeared. It’s still alive, and there are still families like mine who continue to carry it forward.”
Among the songs featured in The Marshall Sessions is Norton’s performance of “Single Girl,” a traditional ballad she has loved since childhood and one she sees as an enduring example of women’s voices within Appalachian tradition.
“The power is in its honesty and I think that’s true of so many Appalachian ballads,” Norton says. “They’re incredibly real. A few verses can tell an entire life story or capture an emotion that people immediately recognize, and that’s one of the reasons they’ve survived for generations.”
Monthly Ballad Swaps are hosted by Nest of Singing Birds at The Old Marshall Jail Hotel. Singers gather on the second Wednesday of each month to share songs, stories and memories in much the same way previous generations did in homes and on front porches across the region. The next Ballad Swap is scheduled for Wednesday, August 12, at 6 p.m.
“These aren’t just old songs,” says Norton. “They’re stories that have been carried by real families, in real places, for hundreds of years. Every person who has sung one of these songs has left a little piece of themselves in it.”
While organized ballad swaps are a relatively recent development, Norton says they recreate the communal settings where the songs were once learned naturally. In her own family, generations gathered after long days of work to sing while shelling beans, shucking corn or spending evenings together outdoors.
“The ballad swap gives us a place where these songs are still learned by listening, participating and spending time together, just like they always were,” she says. “They give us a place to be with our people and carry on the tradition.”
The gatherings maintain many traditional practices. Singers perform in order of age, beginning with the oldest participant, and many songs are performed without instrumental accompaniment, reflecting the way they have been handed down through generations.
“The swaps we have at the Old Marshall Jail Hotel are not really about performing,” Norton says. “They are real and raw. Someone will be singing and forget the words, then someone will pipe up from behind them with the next line, or someone remembers another version, or we will give each other a hard time and joke around. We tell stories about our people, the places we are from, who we learned the songs from and even talk about local history. These songs become a doorway into people’s memories.”
The Marshall Sessions is available for streaming on all major platforms, including Spotify. Learn more about Nest of Singing Birds and the Old Marshall Jail Hotel Ballad Swaps at NestofSingingBirds.com.
