Metrosideros. I live in west central Alabama which is a poverty area, but formerly quite a wealthy cotton town back in the 1800s.
By the time I got here in the late 1980's it was nearly a ghost town. [we have an abandoned hotel and opera house--now under restoration]. Recently there are efforts to revitalize the town. One of the new industries in town is a bamboo bike shop. They grow the bamboo out at the town park and harvest it for the manufacture of the bikes. People make their own bikes for $175. They make the bike from scratch with lessons at the bike shop.
I cant even imagine the sounds those instruments would make. I read in one article about a bamboo trumpet. As I remember a brass trumpet gets pretty wet inside from playing it. There is a valve on the tubing just to let the condensation water out. I wonder how they accomplished that on a bamboo trumpet?
