Retrospective: Meridian guitarist still plays, records, repairs

Frank Trowbridge was born in Meridian, Idaho in 1948 to Cecil and Phyllis Trowbridge, musicians in the Treasure Valley
known as “The Tune Trotters” who played at the old Time for Two on the northeast corner of Overland and Meridian roads.
Frank caught the musician’s bug at an early age, playing guitar and singing during “Show and Tell” in elementary school.
At the age of 10, he performed on live radio with brothers Danny and Steve Wall. “They did live Hootenanny Folk Music
radio broadcasts at Meridian High School,” Frank recalls. “They even played the Roxy Theater.” That building still stands
behind the Sunrise Cafe.

Frank was a student at MHS when the British Invasion occurred, expanding the music paradigm for musicians and the
public from Folk & Country and Classic Rock & Roll of the Elvis inspired type to a new kind of Rock & Roll dominated
by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. “We had our first real band when I was 15 called ‘The Chasers’,” Frank said.
When he was 18, he met and played with David Lee. He already knew Meridian’s own Richard Gooch, who gained
fame in the Northwest with “QuarterFlash” from Oregon. “The three of us played together in ‘The Wandering Kind’ and
then ‘Destiny’ until 1966-67,” Frank said.All three relocated to Seattle and Frank later connected with David Lee again.
They moved to Lewiston in northern Idaho to start the group “Sleepy John.” Their recording history becomes a bit
complex at this juncture. “Before moving to Spokane, we recorded all of our original music on reel-to-reel machines,”
Frank said. Thirty years later, the first pressing of the “Sleepy John” album was released. Then a few years later, a
CD of that album was released and in 2014, a remixed and cutdown version was re-released on vinyl “and is doing
well in Germany and England on Fab-Gear Records,” Frank said. Frank has opened for many accomplished artists
including Billy Joel, Eric Burton, Frank Zappa, Jim Croce, Tower of Power, Cold Blood, Iron Butterfly, Albert King,
Bob Seeger, War, Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Daniels, Earl Scruggs Review, Bachman Turner Overdrive, Bad Finger
and many more.

He has also recorded at Kaye-Smith Studio in Seattle, Sounds Good and Grauman’s studios in Los Angeles and
Criteria in Miami, to name a few. For the past 15 years, he has owned and operated his own refurbishing and
repair shop, GuitarFranks Repair Service in Spokane. Trowbridge’s travels haven’t been just from New York
to L.A. but from the world of drug abuse to sobriety and helping others. “My parents were both alcoholics and
the music and drug scenes have always been closely connected,” he said. In 1987, at the age of 39, he and
his wife Cathy entered the Nancy Reagan Care Unit and have counseled singles and couples groups at
Deaconess Hospital, Frank said. “We are still clean and sober and mentoring today.