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.