Billy Coakley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taken from a biography at www.armstrongbearcatband.com   

 

“Let’s Make a Joyful Noise”  

 

That is the phrase that best describes Billy Coakley’s attitude toward creating and sharing his love for drumming. As he put it “When you are blessed to do things that bring you great joy, your hope is that the listener will also experience that same joy” this is the fuel that has fired Billy’s drumming for over 30 years.  

 

Billy Coakley is a Cleveland Ohio based drummer who was born in New York in 1961 And later moved to Cleveland. It was after moving to Cleveland while in the third grade that he had a life changing encounter with the drums. Billy shares that he was watching an episode of Batman in which Robin was wearing a wig playing a drum solo when he realized that he wanted to play the drums.  

 

His early years were spent in private lessons and school band. After high school Billy went on to study music at Potomac State College in Keyser West Virginia and then the Berklee College of  Music. Along this journey Billy has studied with and participated in master classes with Louie Bellson, Jamie Haddad, Billy Heart and his long time teacher Dave Brewer. All these experiences and individuals have been instrumental in helping Billy become one of the most inspiring drummers anywhere.  

 

Billy’s professional career as a performer and educator got started in the early 80’s playing in a variety of jazz, rock and reggae bands. His ten years with the world beat band Satta were very exciting During that time He released Five records and toured non stop through the United States, Europe and Asia. He also appeared in an NBC Movie of the Week, “The Keys” Currently Billy is in one of Cleveland’s hottest blues and rock power trios, Butch Armstrong and the Bearcats. Along with constant club dates and festivals Butch Armstrong and Bearcats have shared the stage with the Allman Brothers, George Thoroghgood and the Destroyers, Little Feat, Johnny Winter, Blue Oyster Cult, Southside Johnny, Robin Trower, The Tower of Power and many others.  

 

Billy who is a committed Christian is also a member of the music ministry at his home church, Community of Hope. Billy is also teaching, doing solo drum performances which include A drum ministry called “From Every Tribe and Every Nation”, drum clinics, recording, and a whole host of other musical projects.  

 

Whether playing in front of 3000 people at a concert hall or 20 people in a youth group assembly, Billy’s powerful and inspirational drumming is a shining example of discipline, hard work, and a desire to share his gift for drumming with others.  

 

*****  Additionally  *****

 

Billy reflects on the difficulty of the loss of his parents at an early age, and the passing of his brother in 1996 and his sister in 2009. His Christian faith has given him the strength to get through those times, and it impacts every area of his life, and sharing that with others is important to him.   

 

Billy and his wife Crystal have been married for 13 years, and his drumming is something that the two of them share. One of their favorite gigs is playing at nursing homes where they pass out percussion toys to the residents and they do a little call and response, and before you know it, there's a jam session going on and the whole house is rockin'. But most importantly for Billy, it brings people joy. Billy also enjoys creating and filming fun drum solo videos that he routinely posts on facebook or youtube.   

 

Besides his full schedule with the band, Billy also does his fair share of drum solo shows, but because Crystal s such a big help to him, whether it's booking the shows or helping with set up and teardown, he sort of considers those acts a duet.   

 

Billy feels that he has had a blessed life, and looks at his life in a pretty simple way. He loves his job but wants to be an even better drummer; he loves his wife but wants to be a better husband, he loves his faith but wants to serve better. There's one other thing Billy wants, he wants to do more shows!