The Quilter’s Guild
Sunday March 29, 2:00pm
MERA Schoolhouse, McDonald's Corners
Tickets are available at TICKETSPLEASE.ca
Regular - 31 years & older: $35 plus fees
Discount single - 30 years & under: $15 plus fees
Discount Pair - 30 years & under with guest of any age (2 tickets): $30 plus fees
Lotus Wight
Lotus Wight is the stage name of artist Sam Allison. He is known for his work as a performer, producer, songwriter, and festival host. His skills on banjo, upright bass, guitar, jaw-harp and bass harmonica have set him apart in the industry as an in-demand session player and he has garnered multiple nominations for his music work including JUNO, Dora Maver-Moore and Canadian Folk Music Awards both as solo artist and collaborator.
At the age of eight years old, Allison professed his love for the 1920s-era actress, Margaret DuMont, whom he had seen in the films of the Marx Brothers. When he learned of her death, he fell into a deep depression which could only be healed by listening to the music of that era. Tin-pan alley, ragtime jazz, and Appalachian fiddle tunes were the balm for his young soul, and an important influence on his later music.
As a young adult, Sam was engaged with an itinerant square-dance band from the Ottawa Valley and travelled throughout the United States for eight years, playing dance music and studying fiddle, banjo and songs of the American vernacular. It was during this time that Allison invented his alter-ego, Lotus Wight.
Wight plays music in the key of Folk, Blues and Ragtime. Audiences are captivated by Lotus’ seamless movement from banjo to jaw-harp to guitar and his own invention, the contrabass harmoniphoneum. Lotus sings and writes songs that sound like they have been plucked from the turn of the century and his inimitable style has been talked about in the folk music world for years. Wight has played all over the globe including festivals in The Shetland Islands, Turkey, Denmark, and the Netherlands.
Wight’s anticipated 2025 release, “Original Works for Voice and Banjo” has been critically acclaimed as an important collection of original songs in the folk music world. He has been counted as an influence on many young folk artists such as Meredith Moon, The Oddfellows Orchestra and Hezekiah Procter.
Lotus Wight has long been known as founding member of the group, Sheesham, Lotus and Son, having attained status as peerless performers of Old-time music in Canada. This highly influential group was noted for their inventive musical approach, creating instruments and sounds hitherto unseen on Canadian and international festival stages; the contrabass harmoniphoneum, jaw harps, vocal horns and high-energy vaudevillian performances became their hallmark and led them to international recognition.
Mike T. Kerr
Mike T. Kerr is a wild guitar player and ambitious songwriter of Canadian heritage and American citizenship. During his time at Berklee College of Music in Boston and in over 10 years of performing, he's lived his life through many historical and contemporary musical styles. Always curious to dig up not only a song's history, but the shape of the world at the time, Mike plays passionately and openly while interpreting the great guitar players of the past. Combining the boisterous Ragtime of the Reverend Gary Davis, the Country class of Chet Atkins, and the explosive energy of Django Reinhardt, Mike's show is a fireworks display of musical joy. His music strongly supports Willie Nelson’s theory that between Jazz and Country, there’s a two-way street.
"Mike is an incredibly engaging performer - present with the audience and entertaining as hell! He is truly a master guitar player - whether solo or in a band context, his playing is astonishing." - Matthew Smith, Managing Director, Club Passim (Cambridge, MA)
Born in Michigan and raised in Ontario, Quebec and Virginia, it's hard to pinpoint exactly where Mike is from. He now hangs his hat in Toronto after being on the road since 2016.
While briefly based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia he fronted The Franklin Brewery Boys, a bluegrass and hot swing ensemble nominated as Halifax's "Best Country Band" in The Coast in 2017. He has appeared on award winning albums by Nova Scotia's Ryan Cook, Thomas Stajcer, and Willie Stratton. Mike has performed at such NS festivals as Deep Roots Music Festival, Full Circle, Folk Harbour Festival, and In the Dead of Winter. In 2018 Mike was nominated by Music Nova Scotia as Musician of the year.
Currently residing in Toronto, Mike established himself on the local scene by gigging regularly at venues such as The Cameron House, The Rivoli, Drake Underground, Noonan's, The Horseshoe, and many more. He can be found playing original Country music and swinging Jazz almost any night of the week.
Mike has toured and recorded with William Prince, winning the 2024 Contemporary Roots Album of the Year JUNO for William's album Stand In The Joy, produced by Dave Cobb. Mike has toured extensively with the great Canadian songwriter Corin Raymond, playing festivals, halls, house concerts, and theatres all over Canada and the US. He has also toured with and accompanied Campbell Woods, Mama's Broke, Irish Mythen, Dana Sipos, Bill Poss, Willie Stratton, Ryan Cook, and many more, including Nashville's premiere fuzz-psych power trio Howling Giant.
Mike spends his summer on festival grounds, performing under his own name and accompanying his friends. He has performed at Mariposa Folk, Trout Forest, Vancouver Island Music Festival, the Fred Eaglesmith Charity Picnic, Wild Mountain, Philadelphia Folk Festival, Americanafest, and many more.
Guitar Rags & Country Ballads is Mike's first album, it was recorded and released in 2018. It features 7 original Country songs and 3 instrumentals.
Expanding the idea of recording guitar instrumentals, Mike has released Spring Garden Bandstand, an 11-track album of solo, instrumental guitar pieces. It features a piece arranged for guitar by Mike and composed by his late grandfather, Dan Leeman, who got to hear the album and see videos of Mike performing on his favourite bandstand in the Halifax Public Gardens. Dan passed away at the age of 96 in April 2022.
Funding support provided by the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario
