Lotus Dickey

The Lotus World Music and Arts Festival — renowned for international, diverse music — is named after a man who grew up in a log house.

Lotus Dickey grew up in Orange County, Ind., and wrote hundreds of songs throughout his life. He played fiddle and guitar and took influence from the Bible and novels his father read to him as a child.

Dickey died in 1989, but his spirit lives on in southern Indiana through events like the Lotus festival. His friends loved Dickey for his friendly demeanor and contagious personality.

Weekend asked two people who were close to Dickey: Dr. Nan McEntire is associate professor of English at Indiana State University. Janne Henshaw is a folk musician from Nashville, Tenn.

Both McEntire and Henshaw knew Dickey personally and worked to compile the Lotus Dickey Songbook. They will both perform at the Lotus Dickey Song Workshop on Saturday at Lotus in the Park. Here’s what they said.

Nan McEntire

“I met Lotus in the summer of 1981. I was a graduate student in folklore and ethnomusicology at Indiana University, and I had a summer job as a folklorist at Spring Mill State Park. Another folklore student, Dillon Bustin, came to me with some news.

“‘Nan,’ he said, ‘There is an older gentleman that you must meet. His name is Lotus. He plays the fiddle, and he knows hundreds of songs.’

“I looked at Dillon with disbelief. Did such a person really exist? I followed Dillon’s directions. At the top of Grease Gravy Road was a traditional log home. On the porch, playing a fiddle, was Lotus.

“When he saw me drive up, he put down the fiddle, tipped his hat and smiled. ‘Pleased to know you,’ he said.

“That day Lotus played music for me and told stories until about two in the morning. His energy was legendary. A few days later, I returned to his home and invited Lotus to give a concert at Spring Mill State Park. He had not given a public concert before.

“It was a huge success. A reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal was in the audience. The following day I drove her to Grease Gravy Road, and she interviewed Lotus and wrote a feature article about him.

“Eventually he played at festivals, led workshops and performed all over the country. He was a tremendous success at the National Folk Festival in 1985, with many fans clustering around him, asking for his autograph.

“On the way back from the festival, Lotus sat in the back seat, scribbling on a folded piece of paper that he kept in his pocket. I asked what he was writing, and he said, ‘Oh, a song.’ It   turned out that the song was a plea for normalcy amid all of the attention he was receiving. The title of it was ‘I Only Wanta Be Me.’

“He embraced music of all kinds, and the more his world expanded, especially in Bloomington, the more his creative energy grew.

“After Lotus died of leukemia, some of his admirers got together. The talk was of a world music festival in Bloomington, and it was named the Lotus Festival.”

Janne Henshaw

“We and many others all played music with Lotus over the years and visited with him at his one-room cabin in Orange County. He lived in the same cabin that he’d been raised in on Grease Gravy Road.  

“He did manual labor as a young man. But he was always writing songs, sometimes while he was working. He played guitar and fiddle whenever he had a free moment, and his kids remember falling asleep to the sound of his music.

“A generous man, he knew the Bible forward and backward and read it often. He treated everyone with respect and kindness and shared his music freely.

“Always curious, he wrote about many topics and was always learning. He had a great sense of humor and kept us entertained with his many stories.

“Lotus Dickey had a tremendous impact on all of us who knew and worked with him and anyone who met him. We hope to keep introducing his music to people who weren’t lucky enough to know him.”