Sheila Stewart

Sheila Stewart, whose mother was the late Scottish folk singer and storyteller Belle Stewart, has performed songs throughout her entire life. During childhood she participated alongside her mother, her father Alec, and her sister Cathie in a recording session for the School of Scottish Studies Sound Archive that captured the extensive repertoire Belle had received from her own father through her brothers. Their household served as a gathering point for song collectors and performers in search of material. After Belle Stewart died in 1997, Sheila assumed the position of "custodian of the Perthshire family folklore" and issued the self-produced cassette Time Goes on....and Time Goes On, later reissued in 2000, together with the solo CD From the Heart of Tradition; both projects marked her first new recordings since 1968. Topic Records observed the contrast with her mother by noting, "[Sheila's] approach to phrasing is more intricate and perhaps more rhythmically varied; breaking words down to their syllables -- indeed, often adding syllables -- to emphasize a point in the text or a turn in the tune." Many of the songs and stories she holds were acquired from her late uncle Donald, the relative with whom she spent most of her early years. From her earliest recollections she was readied to carry forward the family legacy of songs and stories. In 1976 she performed at the presidential inauguration of Gerald Ford. She maintains an active schedule of lectures on traveller culture at institutions that include Harvard and Princeton Universities.