RIDDLEFEST 2024
Due to the current disaster-related situation in Burnsville, RiddleFest has been postponed to a future date to be determined. Please check back for schedule updates.
RiddleFest 2024
Joy is a “supremely talented musician and artist [who] spreads nothing but joy everywhere she goes.”
– Brandi Carlile, ten-time Grammy Winner
Traditional Voices Group is pleased to announce that New Orleans singer-songwriter Joy Clark will headline this year’s RiddleFest on Saturday, October 19. The Concert explores Songs of Life and Love. The evening concert begins at 7 PM at the Burnsville Town Center, 6 South Main Street. Eighth-generation Madison County traditional ballad singer Donna Ray Norton will open the evening. Tickets for this year’s concert are $20 for adults.
RiddleFest is produced annually by Traditional Voices Group as a tribute to Lesley Riddle, an African American musician from Yancey County NC, who influenced the development of early country music through his collaboration with A.P. Carter and the Carter Family. A historical roadside marker in his honor can be seen on the south side of Hwy 19E, just west of the town of Burnsville.
New Orleans singer-songwriter Joy Clark is a rising musical talent fostered by growing up in the church and influenced by a generation of singer-songwriters, like Tracy Chapman, who lyrically express the hopes and fears of present day life in America. Clark grew up in the church. Her parents were pastors and her family dedicated considerable time to worship and spreading the Gospel. Clark was deeply devoted to this religious life, too. Her love of music was nourished by the church, and her fascination with the guitar was awakened at the age of four. She was composing music by the age of twelve. She sang in church, wrote and performed gospel songs for the congregation. However, her growing interest in secular music was not allowed within her family. Rather it was her basketball teammates who supported this interest.
Although Clark does not consider herself a religious person, but her calming voice and melodious guitar combine with her songwriting talents to produce music that expresses life and love in a deeply spiritual way, focusing on the inner self, celebrating peace and the undeniable power of love. Joy’s music invites you to worship in the Church of Clark: “I like to make people feel positive. I like to make people feel good. I believe in the power of inner peace. I make time to marvel at the mysteries of the world around me. I pour my fears and anxiety into vectors for healing. Music is my gateway to happiness.”
Joy Clark will also lead this year’s RiddleFest Seminar. The RiddleFest Seminars explore Riddle’s life and music through the lens of contemporary musicians. For this year’s Seminar, Clark will share her techniques for how to dig deeper into life’s experiences and write songs informed by our own journeys. The Seminar is free and open to the public. It begins at 3:00 PM on Saturday, October 19th in the Burnsville Town Center.
Donna Ray Norton is a highly regarded member of the younger generation of Madison County ballad singers and storytellers. It’s hard to imagine a deeper musical heritage than Norton’s. She is an eighth-generation ballad singer, the granddaughter of fiddler Byard Ray and Morris Norton, who played the banjo and mouth bow; daughter of singer Lena Jean Ray; and cousin to Sheilah Kay Adams and many other prominent Madison County musicians. She has performed at the Asheville Dance and Folk Festival, the Bascom Lamar Lunsford Festival, Mars Hill College Heritage Day, and at many other venues in western North Carolina. In 2005, she was honored with the Bascom Lamar Lunsford Youth Award for Balladry. Her album Single Girl was released in 2019.
Advance tickets will be available through Eventbrite.com or the Burnsville Town Center, 828-682-7209. Tickets may also be purchased at the door. RiddleFest is sponsored in part by Burnsville Travel and Tourism/Explore Burnsville and Town of Burnsville. Clark’s appearance in Burnsville is sponsored in part by South Arts, which is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.
