Sheila Kay Adams is a wonderful story teller. It comes 'naturally' to her in the sense that she grew up around story tellers. She sings the old 'love' songs, but most of the stories she tells are her own. Get the recording: What Ever Happened to John Parrish's Boy? or her book: "Come Go Home With Me" for examples.

From her schedule I see an Annual Storytelling Festival in Pigeon Forge, TN, so the tradition is seemingly still alive.

I think story telling exists in some families & not others. To preserve certain stories you'd need to make a more conscious effort. Garrison Keillor makes his stories up, but his style is informed by both radio programs he heard & the story telling that happened in his family.

Glad you've done some research, one can never tell from a short query. I think we'd rather prefer to know what you already know that we can add to, instead of spending time giving you information you already have.