Down Home

11/4/15

BREEZY RIDGE™ 35TH ANNIVERSARY 1980 – 2015

I hate to admit to being taken by surprise, because I always remembered the start of the company was sometime in June or so, but when NAMM decided to present us with a plaque on the occasion of BREEZY RIDGE’S 35th ANNIVERSARY at the Anaheim NAMM show in January, I realized that it probably should be celebrated in the Calendar Year…not just after June! To the left is their photo of the beautiful plaque….Thanks NAMM for the recognition!!! We really appreciate it!

With the help of our good friend Merlin David of M Music & Musicians Magazine, we managed to have a fantastic evening at Thai Tangerine Restaurant! In addition to the fabulous food and company of good friends, many played as well:

THREE BOXES [below on the booth, Mark Griffiths, Clive Gregson and long time friend, Andy Roberts]

SAM MORRISON

ME AND THE CITY

STATUS CROWS

And, they got me up to play too…it was a great fun evening!

 

Then I got thinking about anniversaries, and double checked a little presentation I did for our 20th Anniversary in 2000. I thought I remembered that John had told me then that it was the 35th Anniversary of his first set of strings in England….1965. Well, if you are still able to figure in your head, that meant that this year was also the 50th ANNIVERSARY of that set of strings. Re-using the logo from Breezy Ridge’s first business card and adding the occasion as you see it below, our good friends in Colorado made beautiful t-shirts which are available only from the office, for a limited time. Call us directly at the office for availability.

 

This banner recreates a larger-than-life image of John from the first set of strings, and was used on our NAMM booth in Nashville in July. We brought along two cases of champagne for the occasion and consider it well celebrated!

We are almost completely through our original production run of COLBY BANJO TAILPIECES and, as promised, the new batch offers a longer threaded rod and brass nut as well as the choice between the Original Finish or Polished. You can find all the information on the COLBY™ Page.

We met the Anders Sterner and his wife, designers and builders of the STERNER BANJO TAILPIECE, at Frankfurt MUSIKMESSE last year. In addition to being delightful people, I thought their tailpieces were just the most eloquent designs and incredibly functional at the same time! We met them again this year and they agreed that we should make it available in the United States which delighted us. Check out STERNER BANJO TAILPIECES on their new page here.

It is the Holiday Season so we are again offering our HANDSFULL OF PICKS Special Offer.

We have two offering this year : the Original FANCY & EXOTIC HANDSFULL of 15 picks and the new FANCY THINNER PICKS HANDSFULL of 10 picks, as the exotics tend to be pretty beefy. Further information on the Picks Page.

[By the way, we’d like to offer apologies for the consternation of those dear friends who didn’t appreciate our calling it a “HANDSFULL” instead of the more correct “HANDFULLS”.It really wasn’t a typo! It is funny how these names come about!]

AND, speaking about picks, our fabulous FAST TURTLES™ are now available in EXTRA THIN at 1mm! So now we have 5 thicknesses to chose from:

EXTRA THIN [1mm] , THIN [1.2mm], MEDIUM [2.5mm w/Dimple], HEAVY [3.2mm w/Dimple] and EXTRA HEAVY [4mm w/dimple]

After having produced over 100,000 MUSIC REALLY DOES MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE! Bumper Stickers in BLUE, we decided it was time to change the color, to mark the achievement! And while the TEAL color is not quite showing up correctly [it is more the color of this text] we are off to spread our message again across the globe and back!

Celebrating all these anniversaries has been complicated…it is definitely a reminder of all the wonderful times we have had and all the work we have put into Breezy Ridge over the years. But it is also a reminder of the passage of time…which isn’t quite so much fun. Over the past year, we have lost so many friends and loved ones. Honestly, those occurences are fated from the moment we are born but it doesn’t make them any easier. The good thing is that, hopefully, each year we are making new friends and spreading the LOVE around a little more liberally, amd these new friends help to ease the loss.

Make celebrations whenever you can, the relative importance of the occasion being unimportant and, often, the more spontaneous the better. Creating occasions and celebrations to look forward to is good too. Stay Warm! Mary Faith

Breezy Ridge®/John Pearse® Strings at Home

 

 

11/4/15

 

BREEZY RIDGE™ 35TH ANNIVERSARY 1980 – 2015

 

NAMM AWARDS BREEZY RIDGE 35TH ANNIVERSARY

I hate to admit to being taken by surprise, because I always remembered the start of the company was sometime in June or so, but when NAMM decided to present us with a plaque on the occasion of BREEZY RIDGE’S 35th ANNIVERSARY at the Anaheim NAMM show in January, I realized that it probably should be celebrated in the Calendar Year…not just after June! To the left is their photo of the beautiful plaque….Thanks NAMM for the recognition!!! We really appreciate it!

With the help of our good friend Merlin David of M Music & Musicians Magazine, we managed to have a fantastic evening at Thai Tangerine Restaurant! In addition to the fabulous food and company of good friends, many played as well:

THREE BOXES [below on the booth, Mark Griffiths, Clive Gregson and long time friend, Andy Roberts]

SAM MORRISON

ME AND THE CITY

STATUS CROWS

And, they got me up to play too…it was a great fun evening!

 

Three Boxes

 

 

 

Then I got thinking about anniversaries, and double checked a little presentation I did for our 20th Anniversary in 2000. I thought I remembered that John had told me then that it was the 35th Anniversary of his first set of strings in England….1965. Well, if you are still able to figure in your head, that meant that this year was also the 50th ANNIVERSARY of that set of strings. Re-using the logo from Breezy Ridge’s first business card and adding the occasion as you see it below, our good friends in Colorado made beautiful t-shirts which are available,only from the office, for a limited time.Call us directly at the office for availability.

This banner recreates a larger-than-life image of John from the first set of strings, and was used on our NAMM booth in Nashville in July. We brought along two cases of champagne for the occasion and consider it well celebrated!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 Colby[tm] Models

 

We are almost completely through our original production run of COLBY BANJO TAILPIECES and, as promised, the new batch offers a longer threaded rod and brass nut as well as the choice between the Original Finish or Polished. You can find all the information on the COLBY™ Page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sterner[tm] Old Time Banjo tailpiece

We met the Anders Sterner and his wife, designers and builders of the STERNER BANJO TAILPIECE, at Frankfurt MUSIKMESSE last year. In addition to being delightful people, I thought their tailpieces were just the most eloquent designs and incredibly functional at the same time! We met them again this year and they agreed that we should make it available in the United States which delighted us. Check out STERNER BANJO TAILPIECES on their new page here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is the Holiday Season so we are again offering our HANDSFULL OF PICKS Special Offer.

We have two offering this year : the Original FANCY & EXOTIC HANDSFULL of 15 picks and the new FANCY THINNER PICKS HANDSFULL of 10 picks, as the exotics tend to be pretty beefy. Further information on the Picks Page.

[By the way, we’d like to offer apologies for the consternation of those dear friends who didn’t appreciate our calling it a “HANDSFULL” instead of the more correct “HANDFULLS”.It really wasn’t a typo! It is funny how these names come about!]

 

AND, speaking about picks, our fabulous FAST TURTLES™ are now available in EXTRA THIN at 1mm! So now we have 5 thicknesses to chose from:

EXTRA THIN [1mm] , THIN [1.2mm], MEDIUM [2.5mm w/Dimple], HEAVY [3.2mm w/Dimple] and EXTRA HEAVY [4mm w/dimple]

 

After having producted over 100,000 MUSIC REALLY DOES MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE! Bumper Stickers in BLUE, we decided it was time to change the color, to mark the achievement! And while the TEAL color is not quite showing up correcctly [it is more the color of this text] we are off to spread our message again across the globe and back!

Breezy Ridge Bumper Sticker

 

Celebrating all these anniversaries has been complicated…it is defiinitely a reminder of all the wonderful times we have had and all the work we have put into Breezy Ridge over the years. But it is also a reminder of the passage of time…which isn’t quite so much fun. Over the past year, we have lost so many friends and loved ones. Honestly, those occurences are fated from the moment we are born but it doesn’t make them any easier. The good thing is that, hopefully, each year we are making new friends and spreading the LOVE around a little more liberally, amd these new friends help to ease the loss.

Make celebrations whenever you can, the relative importance of the occasion being unimportant and, often, the more spontaneous the better. Creating occasions and celebrations to look forward to is good too. Stay Warm! Mary Faith

 

Graphics and logos on this web site are trademarked, copyrighted, or registered by Breezy Ridge™ Instruments, Ltd., Mary Faith Rhoads-Lewis or Linda Pearse, Center Valley, PA 18034, and may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of Breezy Ridge™ Instruments, Ltd.

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