Amusing story

[colorado_al]

Now- a little while later, he shows up at my shop again. This time he brings me an oud. To have, to take apart, to study. He and his musician friends have decided that I should build ouds. They can't buy decent ones in this country. I asked who in the world is going to buy an oud made by some white guy that grew up on a farm in the Midwest. He said- don't worry about that; the market is waiting and it's all connected. So I have what I think is the only available book in English on oud construction and another book on historical lute construction on my bedstand. Some day there may be a new page on my website: Ludewig Ouds.
Life is full of surprises. And new friends. And music is a giant doorway.

Hey Dale,
I have a Palestinian neighbor down the street from me in St Louis. He's a Dr & scientist at Wash U, and also a great musician who plays the Oud and led the orchestra at Harvard when he was teaching there. He has built his own Ouds because he is unable to get decent ones here. I'd be happy to hook you two up to do some Oud building.

PS- He's super fun to play with! I can sometimes make my mandolin sound a bit like an oud by detuning the pairs just slightly and bending into 1/4 tones. The song we have the most much fun with is Wayfairing Stranger. It really lends itself to the Arabic scale. I'll try to post a recording sometime

[Jeff Mando]

It is good to hear a positive spin on things that so often get reported otherwise......

I was saying to my wife the other day, frustrated after watching the news -- "I wonder what happened to all those cool kids who went to Woodstock? If you do the math and say they were college age in 1969, then add 49 years, you would be talking about people who are now in their mid to late 60's or older........I mean, they can't ALL have turned out bad, can they?" (trying to avoid turning this into a political discussion, which it isn't...)

Like I say, it is good to know that some of the people that were cool back then are still cool! And, I guess it goes without saying "we" have a high percentage of those cool folks right here on the Cafe!

[Dale Ludewig]

colorado_al-

Yes, please PM me with contact info for your friend. Thanks.

[AndyV]

AndyV -- out of curiosity, how much was the Gibson K1?

Can you tell I'm a little sheepish about answering? $450 Canadian. They were very happy with the price. The headstock had been broken and repaired, it had a shimmed non-original bridge and had some separation of the back from the sides either side of the tail block. The headstock repair is really solid and doesn't look too bad on the back, but on the front... I don't know. Maybe he needed it for a gig and didn't have time to spend on cosmetics.

[Jeff Mando]

Thanks for sharing that info, AndyV! Yep, that's $348 in US dollars! Congrats on that one! I kept re-reading your post and thought something was missing between "they had a Gibson for sale and I was buying strings for it!" Enjoy it!

[dadsaster]

A few years back my wife and I fell on hard times. We had just sunk a bunch of money into her Master's program and I lost a high-paying job overnight, with no chance of getting it back. I went from making 8k a month to making zero dollars and my wife had just given birth to a first child and was not liscensed yet to practice accupuncture.

We quickly went through all of our savings, then into our credit cards until we were fully tapped out. We made the decision for my wife to go to work full-time while I became a stay-at-home dad with my baby girl. We moved out of our house into low income housing and a tiny apartment.

Our neighbors were predominantly Muslim Somali refugees. Most of the parents didn't speak English. They were good neighbors. They didn't drink, they were kind to their children and they were especially kind to mine. My daughter routinely had play dates with neighbors across the hall. We started exchanging clothing and toys that our kids had grown out of. They treated my daughter like they would treat any of the kids in their families. It was like she suddenly had 25 aunts and uncles looking out for her.

My wife and I have since recovered from our collapse and bought our own house. I'm very thankful my kids had the opportunity to learn and play with people that outwardly seemed very different from themselves. I'm also very thankful for the lesson on how quickly one can become poor.

[NursingDaBlues]

Throughout this world,
you’ll find good folks,
kind folks,
giving folks,
and folks that make you feel all the richer for having met them.

It’s great that so many of these folks come together to visit on the Mandolin Café.

[Bob Buckingham]

Music. Music, peace and love.