When I Was 15 I Was Commissioned By A Drummer Friend Of Mine To Paint His Drum Kit In A Psychedelic Fashion.

When I was 15 I was commissioned by a drummer friend of mine to paint his drum kit in a psychedelic fashion. To avoid making the paint job permanent I painted the designs on canvases and then glued the canvases to the pearlized acetate drum shells. The paint job gained quite a bit of attention and was featured in Verve magazine. This picture was shot by a staff photographer of Verve Magazine. Circa 1968. ~ Trabue Gentry

In 1967 I took an old guitar and resurrected it. I created a simple design, painted the face black and applied the design using metal leaf, a process known as gilding. The end result brought me five clients and an interest by Gibson Guitar Company to offer it as a service. It didn't fly back then but look at guitar decoration now :-) Circa 1967.~ Trabue Gentry

Follow for Follow

Me during “Lost In The Wax” recording

I was often mistaken for George Harrison and Peter Frampton.

While I waited for the light to change on a downtown street corner one day, a policeman came up to me and asked me to sign his ticket book. I happily obliged him and took his ticket book and pen. Just as I was about to sign it he said “I just love your music, Mr. Frampton.” No matter how much I insisted that I wasn’t Frampton he stood fast saying things like “No worries, Mr. Frampton. I won’t tell a soul.” The more I protested the more he thought I was Frampton. I finally gave up, signed my own name, gave the book and pen back to him, smiled and thanked him. He was one happy camper. I wonder what happened when he got home and looked at the signature: “Honest, honey, it really was Peter Frampton. He kept denying it so I know it was him. See? He even signed an alias!” ;-) ~ Trabue Gentry

Photographer unknown, circa 1977

“We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more we are capable of seeing.” 

Maria Mitchell is known as the first professional female astronomer in the United States. On October 1, 1847, she peered through her family’s telescope and “swept around for comets,” as she did every night it was clear. But that night she became the first woman in the U.S. to discover one. She later became the first Astronomy professor at Vassar College, where she would often ask her students, “Did you learn that in a book or observe it yourself?”