Lotus White

Lotus Wight is a solo performer, vocal stylist, and scholar of antiquity. Wight performs with astonishing virtuosity on banjo, guitar, jaw harp and instruments of his own invention including the contrabass harmoniphoneum. Lotus has performed in Copenhagen, The Shetland Islands, Istanbul and Guelph, Ontario.

In the decades that book-ended the turn of the millennium, young Lotus worked as a member of an itinerant square dance band, garnering invaluable experience touring the Eastern and Southern United States; now he would play, learn and perform with all manner of folk musicians in the styles over which he had obsessed as a child. Wight was at home in a cohort of fiddlers, banjo players, singers, dance callers, folk artists, longshoremen, riverboat captains, blacksmiths, basket-weavers and instrument makers.

Lotus is known for his skill as a workshop presenter, having taught at Augusta Heritage Centre in Elkins West Virginia, Algoma Trad Camp, and Jenny Whiteley's Old School Bluegrass Camp.

Wight's workshops in hambone body percussion and jaw-harp have provided education and delighted audiences of all ages, teaching collaborative music skills and rhythm to school children and music students and corporate groups around the world.

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Testimonials

Lotus Wight captures with his voice the melting pot that is American music; Tin Pan Alley, old-time songs, early country and folk tunes all reside within him and emerge in smoky plumes while he performs with true emotion, skill and reverence. Director Doug Williams-Fraggle Rock, Mr Dressup, T&T

To watch Wight perform is to hear the call of the parlors, the dance floors, and work places of nineteenth and twentieth century America; a page from a book that has disappeared from recent memory and been replaced by the portable screen and mp.3 files. Director Barney Wornoff-Superpopular Show, Corner Gas Animated

The flinty spine of the American vernacular is fully audible in the undertones of Lotus' unique voice. Antique and inviting, he gives shelter from the modern storm with ancient strains of song and string. Candace Shaw-Administrator, Secret Frequency

Equal parts Bessie Smith and Tiny Tim with a dashes of Josh Thomas, Nick Lucas and Gary Davis. Steve Prichard- Disc Jockey CIUT, Toronto

There are unsubstantiated hearsay of Wight's parentage; rumours that he is the illegitimate offspring of American singer/guitarist Elizabeth Cotton and French singer Jacques Brel are yet to be proven. Lester Moncrief

Credits (albums)