Ruokangas Guitars, handmade in Finland, were absent in the United States but not in Europe.
Finland is the home of the Kalevala (Grandfather of The Lord of the Rings), Jean Sibelius, Aulis Sallinen, Einojuhani Rautavaara (three of my favorite classical music composers) and long-hard winters of white purity and, to this day, unrivaled pristine and natural lands of sparseness.
In Finland there is one of the world's highest percentages of enrolled music students. Music is a national "thing" in this country of five million people, perpetually neutral in world conflict and love of nature abounds in its people. 69% of the land is forest.
Finland, unlike its neighbors Sweden and Norway, didn't have courts that needed the opera and European musical pastimes. The music grew with great originality. Music and culture was more of less formed by the national epic the Kalevala (1853).
A pure and non-toxic kind of nationalism was evident in all of the NAMM Show Finns John and I met. A direct honesty and idealism drew me to Juha Ruokangas on the web where I met Eero Klipi through emails and we spoke of hooking up at NAMM... New Millennium Guitar
