ROCKLAND — On Thursday, January 25, at 6:30 p.m., in the Rockland Public Library Reading Room, Dillon Bustin will present songs and stories from his younger years in Indiana, including ballads by his musical mentor, Lotus Dickey. Lotus, a farmer and laborer, was a gifted musician and songwriter who traveled and performed with Dillon during his later years in the 1980s.

Bustin is a singer who is a resident of Rockland. Although he is now based in Maine he grew up in Indiana.

Bustin has a diverse background in performance and the arts. He was educated in American Studies and Folklore Studies at Indiana University, with a special interest in the American Renaissance of the 1830s-1850s. His first album as a songwriter, Dillon Bustin’s Almanac (June Appal Recordings, 1983), chronicled the back-to-the land movement in southern Indiana during the 1970s. His book-length publications include If You Don’t Outdie Me: The Legacy of Brown County (Indiana University Press, 1983) and a biographical essay in The Lotus Dickey Songbook (Indiana University Press, 1996, 2005).

For more information, call 594-0310. Rockland Public Library is located at 80 Union St.