RIDDLEFEST 10/25/25
Roy Andrade & Kalia Yeagle to Headline RiddleFest
October 25, 2025
Burnsville Town Center
RiddleFest Seminar 2025 Explores Traditional Music of the Appalachian Highlands
Traditional Voices Group is pleased to announce that RiddleFest 2025 will feature ETSU faculty members Roy Andrade and Kalia Yeagle. They will explore “Music of the Appalachian Highlands, Setting the Stage for the Birth of Country Music.” Andrade (guitar, mandolin, banjo) and Yeagle (fiddle) teach in the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Roots Music program in the Department of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. Together they have been investigating the musicians and music of the southern Appalachian Mountains with reference to the musical development of Lesley Riddle and AP Carter and the birth of country music in the early twentieth century.
RiddleFest 2025 Free Seminar and Concert will be held on October 25th in the Burnsville Town Center. The evening concert will open with the ETSU Old Time Ramblers, a string band composed of ETSU students in the Bluegrass, Old Time, and Roots Music program. Tickets for the Concert are $20 for adults.
This musical region, which encompasses western North Carolina, southeast Virginia and east Tennessee, ignores political boundaries. Musicians and their music moved freely across state lines. Through historic recordings and the biographies of the artists, Andrade and Yeagle are reconstructing this musical scene of the early twentieth century. Their discoveries will establish the predecessors of the modern country music that Riddle and Carter created. Influential musical forms included the blues of African American slaves and railroad workers (a mix of spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants) that developed in the South in the 1860s and mixed with traditional English songs brought by early European settlers to the region and popular songs that originated in urban areas and circulated throughout the eastern US. By highlighting fellow regional African American country blues artists like Steve Tarter and Brownie McGhee, artists with indigenous origins like Manco Sneed (part Cherokee), and Anglo-American fiddlers whose stories reach back to the mid 1800s like JD Harris, this program offers a vivid interpretation of a cultural history that laid the foundation for modern country music. As award-winning musicians, scholars, and educators, Andrade and Yeagle bring unparalleled insight and authenticity to this tribute, deepening our understanding of this region’s vital role in shaping America’s musical heritage.
Roy Andrade is a musician, producer and teacher who has focused his career on Southern old-time banjo music. He was the banjo player for the popular string band Reeltime Travelers, and has played with a number of other ensembles, notably the New Reeltime Travelers and the Blue Ridge Entertainers. His years of fieldwork have led to the release of several recordings, including Milestones, the Doc Watson Family box set (released 2013), of which he is the producer. During this time he spent many hours playing banjo with Watson at his home and absorbed much of Doc’s banjo style. Roy is currently assistant professor in Bluegrass, Old Time, and Country Music Studies at ETSU.
Kalia Yeagle is an award-winning folk music educator, performer and consultant for community arts initiatives. A celebrated fiddler and singer, she teaches Old-Time Music at East Tennessee State University where she designs groundbreaking curricula informed by the wisdom of tradition. In addition to her decade with the stringband Bill and the Belles, Kalia has performed and recorded with artists and projects including the Virginia Historical Society, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Willi Carlisle, Stephen Wade, Jonathan Edwards, Amythyst Kiah, John Lilly, Melissa Carper, the New Reeltime Travelers, and a Grammy-nominated project with the Great Smoky Mountain Association. She also works as a consultant for community arts initiatives, museums, and arts education programs.
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 AP 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. Riddle received the Legacy Award from Folk Alliance International in 2024.
ETSU has been the leading institution for bluegrass, old-time, and country music in higher education since 1982. Their purpose is to honor the ways that these styles of music have been handed down for generations, while also encouraging innovation and exploration of related and newly emerging musical styles.
RiddleFest 2025 is scheduled for October 25th at the Burnsville Town Center, 6 South Main Street, Burnsville NC. The free Seminar begins at 3 PM. The Concert begins at 7:00 PM. Tickets for the Concert are $20 for adults. The free Seminar “Music of the Appalachian Highlands, Setting the Stage for the Birth of Country Music” is sponsored by North Carolina Humanities. Through public humanities programs and grantmaking, NC Humanities connects North Carolinians with cultural experiences that spur dialogue, deepen human connections, and inspire community. NC Humanities is a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. To learn more visit www.nchumanities.org. RiddleFest Concert is sponsored in part by the Yancey County Tourism Development Authority and the Town of Burnsville. For more information, visit www.traditionalvoicesgroup.org or contact the Burnsville Town Center at 828-682-7209.
