Well, first we started off with a South African funeral song and then made a very natural segue into
a French-Canadian mouth music piece called Re La Bouche, in which Abbey Ladin and Evie Ladin and Mariel
Abel did the footwork.
get some more of that at 9.15 over the First Presbyterian Church when they join their group, Tongue
and Groove. You'll be seeing Sam later on in the set. And this group is made up of a lot of great musicians
here in Bloomington. And it's also made up of many great audience members such as yourself. So we're
now going to make another natural segue to a Swedish Waltz. It's kind of a mouth music piece.
mouth music is called Tralning, and this one I borrow from a Swedish waltz called Vardedud Vardag, which
means, was it you or was it me who danced so wild last night? Something like that. And it's very appropriate
for the Lotus experience, because I asked myself that question this morning. So here we go.
learned from a coal miner who died about five years ago at the age of 99, Nimrod Workman. He learned
it from his Cherokee Indian grandfather who fought during the Civil War. And the song's called Quiloque.
Scott Robinson on percussion. My family visited Lotus Dickey on the day before he went into the hospital
for the first and last time and the only other time when he was as sick as he was with leukemia at that
time was when he was very young, 13 years old, he was looking out the window as he
to us because my kids were gathering all these hickory nuts and he saw them there and it reminded him
of this time when he was really sick. Looking out the window he saw these squirrels and Lotus was a
very keen observer of nature and he always tried to to read signs from these critters out there and
he saw these squirrels just flying from limb to limb and he thought well if he ate what they ate he
would be as lean and spry as they were.
And so he said, he explained to us that he got this whole bushel full of hickory nuts and started eating
them. And there's a verse in the song called Bushy Tale that I learned from Lotus Dickey, another really
good friend of, I mean, that I learned from Dylan Buston, but there's a verse that I wrote for Lotus
Dickey in here. It's called Bushy Tale.
the bay.
out of the depths of despair and dreams of flying, and it draws on a 14th century Italian Laude, but
it's called Pegasus.
I'm not.
wrote this song, she was two months old and she looked very much like a potato.
welcome Claudio Buchwald and Sam Bartlett. We're now going to sail away. And it's been wonderful playing
for you, Claudio and Sam and Abby playing a group called The Monks. And if you don't have their CD that
just came out,
You ought to. It's great. Would you like to be over here? That'd be fine if you want. We're just going
to go from this point on out there into the streets and enjoy the rest of this music. Thank you so much
for coming. This has been really fun.
I'm a townie. I was born and raised in Bloomington and this is my third year at the Lotus Music Festival
and I'm loving it. I'm volunteering at BCAT right now and we have our first interviewee. His name is...
My name is Thaddeus J. Holmes. And he's a musician in town. He plays for... The Ballroom Rustabouts.
They call me T-Rex. I'm not a townie. I moved here seven years ago.
I came to Lotus Festival for the first time last year and I couldn't believe that I'd missed all the
years before. It's usually pretty fun, at least it was last year, so I'm hoping this year will be too.
What acts are you looking to see in particular? The good ones. My plan is to see all the good acts and
miss all the bad ones. At least that's the plan. We'll see how it works out. What's supposed to be good?
What's the word on the streets?
Well, I'm taking my little brother around. He's 10 years old, so I'm trying to think of what would be
fun for him. I thought Johnny Sacco would be fun, even though it's local. It's part of Lotus Festival.
And I've heard the Iris Dement show is supposed to be very good. I saw a movie last night that Barberito
Torres, I think it is, was in. So I got to go see him. And other than that, I don't like plans. I'm
just going to see what happens. Have you had any food or anything? Not yet. I'm going to go eat right
now. We've got Joy Brady here.
She's a musician, an entertainer, a volunteer, and she works at The Rise. I do. She's just a wonderful,
multifaceted person. She's going to talk about her band that's performing right now and about why she's
at the Lotus Music Festival. Ocas de Son is about the best band I've played in. We make money, we play
outside of Bloomington, and we get the chance to play at the local tent here at the Lotus Festival, which is
One of the best festivals in Bloomington. As a cultural event, it's a top notch. People from all over
the world are able to come to our community and play music. People from all over the country are able
to come to Bloomington to hear them. Gotta love it. Can you talk a little bit about the Yuba Singers?
And even if you're not performing, just talk a little bit about them. Oh, the Yuba Singers, yes. I've
been singing acapella in Bloomington for over eight years, closer to 10. And the Yuba Singers is a trio
that we sing socially,
songs about social justice. Look for more in the future. And how come you're not performing at the Lotus?
Because they won't let the xylophone in. That's not true, but... We've got two middle schoolers here.
They're dance theater and singing students, so let's hear why they're at the Lotus Music Festival. Well,
we first came... What are your names? Oh, my name's Jessica. And I'm Hannah.
tickets for the Lotus Festival. And we're here to see all the different performers and what they have
to show us. What in particular did you come to see? I don't know, just everything. Do you think there's
a lot here for people your age? Probably. I'm not really sure what it has, but... We're just here to find out.
Yes, I am. Can you tell us what you do here and why you're at the Lotus Music Festival? I am a professor
at the university in the Department of Afro-American Studies and I'm at the Lotus Festival because I
like arts and music. What do you teach in particular in the African-American Studies Department? I teach
African-American history courses. And are you giving your students extra credit for coming? No, I'm not.
I'm encouraging to come, but not for extra credit. Next time I will. So tell us who you're going to
hear, or who you came to hear in particular. I just heard a Laotian group with music and dance. I'm
going to hear a band from Zimbabwe tonight, and I'm going to hear some Tibetan chants and some cabaret,
which is the last act of the evening, yes. So how's the food? Good. The bite I had.
It's good. I only had one bite of this. It's a burrito, and it's good. Oye! This is Arturo. He's a jewelry
maker and a salsa, merengue, mambo, what have you teacher? King. King. Undre. We want to know why he's
at the Lotus Music Festival and what his plans are. Well, I plan to enjoy the music. There are some
great bands performing tonight.
Down by the 10, there's an orchestra song playing right now. So I was planning on getting me a wristband
and just go all over the place. Usually he teaches dance while the orchestra song is playing. Is this
the case this evening? Yeah, pretty much. I'm going to be down there and some people are gathering and
getting ready to learn some steps. Well, he's going to have to show the camera some. And did you know
that he is from Lima, Peru? Are there any musicians from Peru here?
Not this year. For the last year a lot, I think it was actually in 1998, some Peruvian singer came,
it was Susana Baca. She's an Afro-Peruvian singer, but not this year. And she was fabulous, and he made
this ring. And they are dancing.
Introduce yourself and your shirt. Oh, I'm Andrew. Hi. How are you? Shirt? Oh, Horseflies. Used to be
a great band. Then their bass player died, unfortunately. Colon cancer. Awful. John was a great guy.
Are you a musician? No. Why are you at Lotus? I used to play piano, though. Why am I at Lotus?
People watching, great music, great stuff. How many years have you been coming? Bloomington is the cultural
vortex of the universe. I think we need to catch that on record again. What, cultural vortex? The entire
thing. Bloomington is. Bloomington is the cultural vortex of the universe. That is a powerful statement.
Okay, we've got police on bikes here keeping our
city safe. Isn't Bloomington the safe and civil city? Okay, tell us about your experience with the Lotus
Festival as cops on bikes. There isn't really much of one, just everybody's quiet. We're just kind of
riding around making sure there's no problems. Have there been any problems so far? That's why I said
it's been quiet, no. I'm glad to hear that we're behaving ourselves. Okay, come over here. He's scared
of me. Hopefully he won't arrest me. Okay, talk a little bit
about why you're here and what the job entails? Basically just to keep the peace and if people need
to know where an event is and need to find out directions we can help them there. So no one's even come
to speak with you? Oh yes, yes a few people have come because they like the bikes and they'll come to
at least speak to us because we're on the bicycles as opposed to being in the cars. So you enjoy being
on the bikes better than in the cars? Absolutely.
Hope there's no emergencies. Are you guys going to hear any of the music or are you guys stuck outside?
We'll be outside. But are you enjoying any of the local acts outside in the tents? Absolutely. Yes.
Is that it, boys? Okay, the beer god is here. Can you please state your full name and all the restaurants
and bars you own and tend and explain what you're doing at the Lotus Music Festival?
Well, we're here with the Bloomington Brewing Company, and we're thrilled to be a part of Lotus. It's
always a lot of magical moments every year. So we're just happy to be a part of it and have everybody
drinking good beer and eating good food with soul. So explain to me what beers are here and why these
particular beers were chosen. Well, our flagship beer is the Quarryman Pale Ale. A lot of hops, unfiltered.
It seems to be the beer that everybody likes in town. So we always bring that out to an event like this.
People love it. It's a bitter, hoppy beer. As good as any pale ale in the Midwest, I'm convinced. So
what's your motto? Have more fun. And you can achieve that way? More beer. Sounds good. Do you get to
hear any of the events? I'm going to go see some reggae right now. Hi, I'm here with Peter Lobelow, director
magazine, newsletter, what have you, and he's going to talk a bit about why he's at the Lotus Music
Festival and how they've been advertising the Lotus Music Festival and writing articles, etc. Well actually
the writer was the first newspaper to sponsor the Lotus Music Festival in its first year. So that year
and ever since then we've been a co-presenter and we've
Since we're monthly, we come out a month prior to the event. We're the first print media to cover and
to preview the event. Is that enough? And then post-Lotus, what do you do? Post-Lotus, there's no such
thing as post-Lotus. No, I mean you interview people and there's articles. Post-Lotus, you get ready
for the next Lotus. Lotus is a continuing process that never ends. It just grows and grows and grows.
It's like that movie The Blob with Steve McQueen.
I think that should do it. That was a pretty good end quote. Thank you.