Music in the night

The Lotus World Music Festival comes every fall - this year on a perfect October weekend, one with clear skies and crisp air. We had two evenings of music, walking through the crowded downtown streets from one performance to another.

Part of the fun is waiting in line as you skip from Mali blues to Norwegian fiddle music, hearing a bit of a set here and a bit of a set there.

As we listened to La Musgaña (the water rat) play traditional tunes and songs of the Castilian countryside, we thought about the days when two of you were looking for music that combined accordian and violin.

One of the best things about Lotus? Finding unexpected friends in the audience. They were waiting for the same thing we were - Solas.

What is a banjo doing in "one of the world's best Irish folk music groups"??? And why wasn't there more flute? It didn't matter - the sound was mesmerizing.

We stayed for the whole set.