BROOKTONDALE NY - Sheesham & Lotus & Son for a house concert followed by a music jam at The Canaan Institute (Mike and Raylene’s workshop) on Thursday Sept 13 2012 starting at 7:00 pm. Donation for the band $15- RESERVATIONS & RSVP: please email Mike Ludgate to reserve your seats and for directions mike@cinst.org

Facebook event for this concert https://www.facebook.com/events/421565647880173/

More events at Canaan Institute: Concerts, Workshops, Jams http://canaaninstitute.org/mn/mus_jamcann.html

An important moment of reckoning between Lotus Wight and Sheesham Crow was when they realized that they had the common experience as children brushing their teeth to the fiddle tune “Turkey in the Straw”, using the shape of their mouths to manipulate the melody of the tune. It was this kind of idle,yet innate musicality which followed them as youngsters.

High-steppers Sheesham and Lotus and Son bring you an audacious mix of Old-Time, Ragtime, fiddle and banjo sung through their patented sepia-phonic Monophone! They play homemade bass harmonicas and Jaw-harps too, making them an asset to the workshop and clinic stages. Flatfoot Buck-dance & Hambone!!

Sheesham and Lotus came together in 1998 as Teilhard Frost and Sam Allison, playing as the rhythm section in a fiddle band called Flapjack. Together for the next seven years they were on the road throughout Canada and the United states playing dances-camps, concerts and workshops. It was during this time that both Frost and Allison took a keen interest in the folk traditions of North America, particularly the American south. Both became enthusiastic historians of old-time fiddle and banjo music, learning from the old masters across the regions south of the Mason-Dixon line. Through personal instruction, perseverance and osmosis they learned harmonica, jaw-harp, flatfoot and song.

“…Sheesham and Lotus are the Kings of Old-time!” -Carrie Ough, The Good Lovelies

Sheesham Crow - Harmonica, Singing, fiddles, jawharp.
Son Sanderson - Trumpet, Sousaphone, Cornet.
Lotus Wight - Singing, Banjos, jawharp, contrabass harmoniphoneum

Discography: “Sheesham & Lotus Old Time Fiddle & Banjo” 2006, “EVERYTIME” 2008 - Sepiaphone Records, “Five Miles from Town” 2011 - Sepiaphone Records

Web Page http://sheeshamandlotus.com/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sheesham-and-Lotus/115654218477913

Crow and Wight play fiddle and banjo respectively, with an additional array of home-made curiosities of noise-makery. Sheesham is a maker of gourd banjos and fiddles, and Lotus plays an invention called the contra-bass harmoniphoneum, which is a self-contained bass-harmonica and euphonium horn which can be used while plucking a banjo. Indeed it is a well documented fact that Sheesham and Lotus use horns for singing, harmonicas, jaw-harps and more.

The music of Sheesham and Lotus could be described as American roots music. They love to play fiddle tunes, hokum blues songs and ragtime string music. “The sounds of the south are near and dear to our hearts,” says Lotus, “from the old fiddlers on the Lomax collections to the Memphis jug-bands and the Mississippi Sheiks and Narmour and Smith…there is so much to hear and learn.”

“…They’re the best thing that Canada has in American old time music performance right now- maybe ever! ” -Arnie Naiman

“Sheesham and Lotus play music that knocks my hat in the creek! Their fiddle and banjo intertwine seamlessly to show listeners the way home” -Joe Newberry

Though Sheesham and Lotus have worked primarily as a duo they are joined by third member Sonny Sanderson on sousaphone for festival and theatre dates this upcoming season. Sanderson joins Sheesham and Lotus from Peterborough’s the Silver Hearts, with whom Lotus played upright bass for a number of years.

“Come highstepping with Sheesham and Lotus!. Old-time rhythms that will blow the mind and hypnotize! ” -Chris Coole

Sheesham and Lotus are inspired by an array of different music from all over the world but one could say that within the spectrum of their repertoire lies special attention to American folk music. If one were to try to further interpret this criminally broad categorization they would find these two incomparable musicians engaging in something which can be described as the living, breathing tradition of Old-time, ragtime banjo-and-fiddle-centric, good-time sound.

Sheesham and Lotus take love of the pre-jazz sounds of the Memphis jug band era, and music of the Appalachian Mountains, blue strains from the Mississippi flatlands and through music and dance transform the casual observer into a devoted participant. The facility and mastery with which they manipulate banjo, fiddle, jaw-harp, harmonica, and song is undeniable, unbelievable! HAMBONE! Take an earful and travel down the flinty spine of Old-time Music with Sheesham and Lotus as soon as you can, and you may never be the same. After hearing one note, you will see that this music can be loved by everyone. Sheesham and Lotus for EVERYONE, EVERYTIME! -Dr. Felix Van Nostrand, Den Hague, Netherlands

Originally brought together as the rhythm section for Canadian folk and fiddle outfit Flapjack in 1998, Sheesham and Lotus immersed themselves in the traditional music scenes wherever their travels took them, from West Virginia to Kasheshewan and California to Nova Scotia. They traded tunes and studied with old masters throughout the American south while becoming top-demand clinicians in old-time dance and music. Sheesham and Lotus’ self-produced debut CD, “Old-time Fiddle and Banjo” was met with critical acclaim from Canadian folk music publication, ‘Penguin Eggs’. They accepted invitations to play folk festivals around Canada including Winnipeg, Ottawa, Lunenberg and Sudbury, receiving high recommendations for mesmerizing performances and keen work-shop skills. Sheesham and Lotus appear as if they are from the very old days themselves. Dressed sharply in the old style, they play jaw harps, ham-bone percussion and home-made bass harmonicas in the ragtime and mountain style. They delight with fiddle tunes and blues songs and always have an instrument on hand and a tune to play.

In 2008 fans were treated to a special release of Sheesham and Lotus’ EVERYTIME, a record that was recorded exclusively through their patented Sepiaphonic Monophone Horn Amplifiers, offering a very ‘old-time’ listening experience that Matt Large, concert promoter and old-time scholar in Montreal, Quebec called-’the best folk record of 2008′ . Now Sheesham and Lotus tour as a trio with Sousaphone player Son Sanderson. Son and Lotus used to share the stage together as rhythm section members of the legendary ‘Silver Hearts’ from Peterborough, Ontario. The 2010 season saw the trio hosting and playing mainstage engagements at Sudbury’s Northern Lights Festival, The Peterborough Folk Festival and the Shelter Valley Folk Festival, as well as their first time headlining stateside at Vermont’s Champlain Valley Folk Festival. During August of 2010, Sheesham and Lotus played dates in Paris and Bordeaux, France.

Sheesham Crow - Harmonica, Singing, fiddles, jawharp.
Son Sanderson - Trumpet, Sousaphone, Cornet.
Lotus Wight - Singing, Banjos, jawharp, contrabass harmoniphoneum

Discography: “Sheesham & Lotus Old Time Fiddle & Banjo” 2006, “EVERYTIME” 2008 - Sepiaphone Records, “Five Miles from Town” 2011 - Sepiaphone Records

Web Page http://sheeshamandlotus.com/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sheesham-and-Lotus/115654218477913