Armstrong Bearcat Band
Butch Armstrong was born in Shaker Heights Ohio, and first picked up a guitar at age ten, having been inspired early on by the Beatles. Joey and younger brother Vito, who played bass, along with their cousin Frankie on drums, actually formed their first band, the NEATLES, at eight and ten years old. later changed to the KNIGHT RIDERS at ten and twelve years old. They appeared on the JERRY G. show on WKYC TV, and the UPBEAT show WEWS TV. They would beg their mother every weekend to drive them to the Chagrin Falls Armory to hear local guitar gods Glen Schwartz and Joe Walsh, They would listened to Hendrix, Beck, and Clapton records by the hour. Butch started his professional career right out of high school with RASTUS, a local jazz-blues fusion band with a full horn section and two albums on the charts and toured with them across the country. While in L.A. in the late seventies, he auditioned for the highly successful band, CHICAGO, after the accidental shooting death of frontman lead guitarist Terry Kath. They loved his guitar playing, but he wasn’t chosen, only because he didn’t sing back then, and they needed a strong second lead vocalist so Peter Cetera went on to do the job alone.This disappointment taught him a valuable lesson, and he vowed to work on his vocal skills. Returning to Ohio, he paid his dues for almost a decade in GOODFOOT, a “post-disco” band that worked the dance circuit steadily through the eighties. Although the style of music was not his favorite, he developed his vocals by singing background harmony.
It was during this time that he started to lose his hair and gave in to the inevitable by shaving his head. He also liked to wear an army generals campaigne hat and camouflage clothing. (Not a common look back in the “big hair” eighties.) Goodfoot’s lead vocalist at the time was John Morton, who jokingly dubbed his guitar player “General Butch Armstrong”. (“Butch” for the buzz-cut and “Armstrong” after general George Armstrong Custer.) The name stuck but the band dissolved. When Stevie Ray Vaughan hit the airwaves, it led to a resurgence of interest in the blues. Players came out of the woodwork, and Butch saw an opportunity to return to his roots and play the music he really loved. In the late eighties, he started his own band, Butch and the Ramrods, which basically became the Sunday night house band at the Euclid Tavern.
Flashback to 1989: 2,200 headbangers are packed into the Phantasy Theater (designed for a capacity of 1,500) to see headline act Living Colour. Alas, the opening act has mistakenly gone to Rochester, New York, and the crowd is getting ugly. Butch, Stutz, and Ramrods drummer Kenny Riscitto are rushed in from a recording session nearby as a last-minute replacement. They pound out a 45-minute classic roadhouse set, and leave the crowd flicking their Bics and calling for more. And so the Armstrong Bearcat Band is born!
Their searing brand of hard-driving, in-your-face blues soon made them “the band in demand” when a local opening act was needed for concert venues. Over the years they have warmed up the stage for Albert Collins, George Thorogood, Johnny Winter, ZZ Top, Blue Oyster Cult, Robin Trower, Leslie West, Robby Krieger, Rick Derringer, Humble Pie, The Kinsey Report, Danny Gatton, John Mayall, Savoy Brown, Kansas, Son Seals, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Tinsley Ellis and a host of others too numerous to name. Often they have the crowd jumping to their feet and dancing in the aisles before the main act even appears (and many times get better reviews, too.)
Armstrong Bearcat’s opening set for the Marshall Tucker Band prompted one reviewer to make the comparison that the trio had “half the musicians but twice the talent.” Opening at Nautica for Little Feat, Butch Armstrong’s rendition of signature tune “Mr. Cleanhead” had headliner Sam Clayton “sitting on the side stage looking stunned, but happy.” The tune, a tip of the hat to Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, often inspires Armstrong to jump from the stage and get his clean-shaven head stroked by the throng of adoring women that crowd around him.
Eric Burdon was so impressed with the powerhouse trio that after their Agora show together, he accompanied them to the Euclid Tavern where they jammed late into the night. Another great Agora moment was the Meat Loaf show. Cleveland audiences are notorious for being less than kind to bands that open for Meat Loaf – fans are usually there just for him and no one else will do. And Meat Loaf does not allow opening acts to use his stage lights or sound system. Not so with Armstrong Bearcat – their electrifying set had the fickle audience in awe and halfway through, they found themselves bathed in ambient stage light, on orders from Meat Loaf himself.
Michael Barrick is a central Ohio native who grew up on a farm in Bucyrus, graduating from Ashland College. He started his career as a trumpet player, and performed for ten years as a member of the United States Air Force Jazz Band, touring and recording in Asia, Europe, and the U.S. After three years, he switched to bass guitar, and those of us who have heard him play are sure glad he did!
Barrick and his wife decided to settle down in the Old Brooklyn area of Cleveland in 1994. After being in town for only two days, he met guitarist Michael Bay, who offered him the opportunity to sit in as the bassist for the Wednesday night jam session at the Parkview Nite Club, a former speakeasy that is an icon of the Cleveland blues scene. Together with Parma drummer Jim Wall, the Bad Boys of Blues were the most sought-after rhythm section in town. Mike Barrick became well-known in the blues community, and often interacted with Butch Armstrong.
Drummer Billy Coakley has been part of the Armstrong Bearcat Band since the early days at the Euclid Tavern. Watching him play the drums is like a religious experience. During the group’s version of “Superstitious,” he does a five-minute drum solo that just stops everybody cold. Coakley started playing drums at age nine, inspired by Buddy Rich, and cites John Bonham and Phil Collins as two of his later influences. He studied music at Potomac State College in West Virginia and the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he performed with the Jazz Band and percussion ensembles. Along the way, he participated in master classes with Billy Hart, Tommy Campbell, Louie Bellson, Skip Hadden, and his long-time early teacher, Dave Brewer. Coakley’s professional career got started in the early 80s playing in a variety of jazz, rock, and reggae bands. During his ten year stint with reggae band SATTA he released five records and toured nonstop throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
Coakley is a committed Christian, a member of the music ministry at his home church, and donates his free time to community service for children and the elderly. He also teaches, does solo performances and drum clinics such as “Around the World with Drums,” a performance strictly for young people interested in percussion. His philosophy: “When you are blessed to do the things that bring you joy, your hope is that the listener will also experience that same joy.” An all-round good guy with a great heart, he is a powerful driving force behind the Armstrong Bearcat sound.
These days Butch Armstrong sings most of the lead vocals for the band. The guy who once missed his big chance because he couldn’t sing has developed into a charismatic frontman and can wrestle notes out of a guitar that are simply not of this world. He plays straight from the heart, making his guitar wail, scream, and cry. Onstage he plays a Gibson double-neck, a Flying V, a Telecaster, a Stratocaster, Les Paul – all depending on his mood. Armstrong Bearcat does not rehearse – they just play. No performance is ever the same and that spontaneity factor is what sets them apart from the rest.
And what does he think the future holds for the group with new bassist, Michael Barrick? “Mike is great – I’ve known Mike for over ten years. He’s a very melodic bass player, he can play slap, he has so many different styles – he’s over the top! I’m really excited about the band’s future. It’s ‘Do or Die!’”
If you have never heard this dynamic trio, get ready for a full frontal assault of high voltage bad-ass blues! (www.armstrongbearcat.com for song clips, videos, schedule)
-written by Cat Lilly-