Hi Ed,
Thanks for that. I hadn't seen it with the hyphen before, and made a wrong assumption there.
The bouzouki is a Greek stringed instrument with its origins in Asia Minor, or Turkey if you like. It looks like a long necked Neapolitan mandolin but with a much deeper sound. I'm surprised you've never heard of it, but neither had the North African cabin crew of the plane I brought it home to the UK in, and it ended up costing me about $80 excess baggage. Most airlines allow you to put them in the overhead lockers but the one I flew with never. The current 8 string version wasn't popular until the mid 1950s, when tuning like the top 8 strings of a guitar was adopted. I first heard it being played on TV and started (trying) to play it way back in the 60s. I never got very far, as in those days there was no internet, and having never been to Greece I had never seen anybody play it live. I rather quickly dropped the idea, sold the instrument, and went back to electric guitar. I loved the sound though, and when my sister moved to Greece some years ago I decided I had to have another one.
Over the years I've learned quite a bit about the French musette accordion but have no real interest in many other styles. I never started to play until I was about 30 and was doing well with it after some 12 years of playing, when I nearly lost the third and fourth fingers off my right hand in an accident. It took me a very long time to get them working again, and that effectively put paid to any hopes I had to be a public performer. Studying Joe Rossi would have been no help as he only lost one finger! At least I still have all mine and tend to console myself with playing electric guitar, as my right hand is basically OK, it's just those two fingers which do not always do what I want them to.
