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.
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