By Major Darst

Photo Courtesy of Matthew Runkel

Photo of Bear Barrus at the Mural Amphitheater, Seattle Center - July 20, 2003.

I was hard at work at my day job when I got the call from my wife. She had just been phoned by George Conrad, a close friend of Bear’s with the news that Bear Barrus had passed away in the early morning hours of Dec 23^rd at the UW Medical Center.

Needless to say my day was pretty much over at that point. I began to think about my long history as a bass player for the various groups that Bear dragged me into and all the memories of all the performances in clubs and concerts we did together throughout the Puget Sound area over a period of roughly 12 years.

I was first introduced to Bear Barrus in June of 1993 by a mutual friend of ours, drummer Jim Busch. Jim invited me to come and audition for a group he was forming with Bear and guitarist Tim Tennis called Bluetown. Oddly enough the audition took place at Han Ipsen’s house, who entered our lives more centrally a few years later. I had never in my life heard a vocalist like Bear Barrus. I was dumbfounded. Such incredible vocal range, such athenticity, such power. Tim Tennis was a character. He absolutely insisted that I learn every Jimi Hendrix song ever recorded. I had an under-graduate degree in Jimi Hendrix before Tim was through with me, but now when somebody calls a Hendrix tune, I can cover it. Drummer Jim Busch stayed with the group for about six months and then opted out and was replaced by a friend of mine from the band Risk, drummer John Santiago. It was this four piece version of Bluetown that was the house band at the New Amsterdam Restaurant in downtown Bothell for almost 3 years. The New Amsterdam was a tough joint. There were fights everytime we played there. Even women picked fights in that club. One night after the gig, Bear was knocked out by some guy who hit him in the head with a rock as Bear was trying to break up a fight. The band also played at the Rocker in Bothell, the Old Inn in Snohomish and the Club Broadway in Everett among other places. The only known recording of this group was a live recording at the New Amsterdam on March 26, 1994 made by Tim’s brother Pat Tennis of which only a handful of copies exist. It never ceases to amaze me how many people still remember this little 4-piece band from Bothell that never released a record and broke up 8 years ago. This was the group in which Bear developed what was to become the core of his singing material including the Otis Redding tune "Tenderness" which was one of his favorite songs. The band also performed a lot of Cream tunes. Bear also instituted his versions of "House of the Rising Sun" and "Let Me Love You Baby" in Bluetown.

After about 3 years with Bluetown, Tim Tennis left the band and the group was reformed with Bear on vocals, myself on bass, John Santiago on drums, Joe Hinchy on guitar, and multi-intrumentalist Kevin "Peach" Peachy on keyboards, trumpet and flugelhorn. This group was called Giant and was together for only about a year and played primarily on the north side at clubs like the Club Broadway among others. Peach turned Bear on to Donny Hathaway in this band. There are only a few known recordings of this group, all of which are not released. Kevin Peachy left this group to go on the road with the band Burnin’ Chicago. Kevin’s replacement on keyboards was Pat Gossan. Its kind of funny with first impressions and such. When Pat walked into the rehearsal room he was wearing these kind of loose fitting baggy leather boots and I thought to myself he’s a rather oddly dressed fellow! Looks like he stole those boots out of Keith Richard’s closet! The thing I noticed next was what a nice gut Pat was, how well Pat and Bear harmonized vocally, and what a prolific songwriter Pat Gossan was.

The next thing that happened was one of those things that can’t be planned. I’d known of Hans Ipsen because Bluetown used to rehearse at his house. Out of the kindness of his heart Hans let Bluetown rehearse in his basement because Bear was his friend and we had nowhere else to go. Hans had recently left Little Bill and the Bluenotes and was between bands as they say. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that if we could get Hans Ipsen and Bear Barrus in the same band we would definitely be a band worth listening to. I kept needling Bear to try and talk Hans into joining our group. So did Jim Busch. I don’t think Bear thought Hans would be interested in our silly little band. You gotta understand, Hans Ipsen was big time, we were small potatoes. It was kind of like Hans Ipsen was in the major leagues and we were in the minor leagues, but for some inexplicable reason, Hans joined the band!

The new group was christened as Black Cat Bone and consisted of Bear on vocals, myself on bass, Joe Hinchy on guitar, Hans Ipsen on guitar, John Santiago on drums, and Pat Gossan on keyboards. This band proved to be a transitional group and only played a handful of gigs. In fact the only gig I can recall with this band was at a place that is now called the Convergence Zone in Mukilteo. Only one known recording of this group is known to exist, a rehearsal recording I made on my Sony Portable on July 5^th 1996 at Hans Ipsen’s house. The recording quality is terrible but its just one of those recordings I’ll always hang on to.

After a few months, Hans Ipsen got the idea of adding a horn section to the group, something he had become accustomed to during his stint with Little Bill and the Bluenotes. This new collection of misfits was called Fat Cat. The band was actually named after Hans Ipsen’s 29 pound overweight cat and not the girth of our lead singer! The members of Fat Cat were; Bear Barrus on vocals, myself on bass (remember I said Bear dragged me into a lot of stuff) , Hans Ipsen on guitar, Pat Gossan on keyboards, Jim Busch on drums, Hadi Al-Saadoon on trumpet, Robbie Jordan on sax, and Randy Oxford on (do I really need to tell ya what) trombone. The band kicked off its performance schedule in February of 1997. Terry Nelson was eventually added to the group to fill out our sound on Hammond organ. Brian Kent is now a regular on sax along with Hadi Al-Saadoon on trumpet. We have also been fortunate to have had Kevin Peachy, Michael Matthews, Scotty Harris and Brian Hartmann in our horn section. Our old friend Pat Kelly was brought in as sound tech and to separate us during fights.

Fat Cat proved to be a rather magical collection of characters. We were very different as individuals but when we played together we seemed to be possessed by some gaurdian musical angel. This group played all over Seattle and Tacoma and was even voted Best New Band in 1998 by the Washington Blues Society. Bear was nominated for Best Male Vocalist that year but he lost by a handful of votes to Mark Dufresne, who is now the singer for Roomful Of Blues. Some of our memorable performances were Bumbershoot 1998, the Showbox Theater in 1998, and the Bite of Seattle in 2003 where the above photo was taken. My favorite show of Bear’s was his 1998 Bumbershoot performance. He put everything he had into that show and had to be assisted from the stage after the set. I thought he was going to collapse after that set but after he sat down for awhile he was ok. There are currently no released recordings of Fat Cat although live recordings do exist from our 1998 Bumbershoot performance as well as recordings made at the Scarlet Tree in Seattle, Jake’s Ales in Federal Way, The Bite of Seattle, Big Daddy's in Woodinville and Jazzbones in Tacoma. Bear brought his signature tunes from Bluetown into Fat Cat. It was in Fat Cat that Pat Gossan really began to stretch his wings and take flight as a songwriter. Bear and Pat Gossan shared vocal responsibilties and complimented each other with harmony when the other vocalist sang lead.

Bear’s health began to deteriorate dramatically in 2004 and by September 2004 it became almost impossible for him to perform. Some people are under the impression that Bear was fired from Fat Cat. This is untrue. We would never fire him from the band. That would be like telling your brother that you never want to see him again. Bear’s health had gotten so bad that he could no longer perform. He knew it, we knew it and he resigned after our performance at the Oxford Saloon in Snohomish on September 4^th, 2004 telephoning both myself and Pat Gossan with his resignation.

Bear Barrus will always be remembered for his powerful vocal style, his charismatic and eccentric manner, and the warmth of his heart. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we will always carry with us his memory. There will be a little bit of Bear Barrus in every song we sing, in every chord we play. God bless his wife Victoria, his Mom and Dad, his loving family and his many friends.

The Bear Barrus memorial CD is now available and can be purchase from CD Baby!  Here's a link to Bear's CD entitled The Best of Bear Barrus.