CazCats

The CazCats formed in 1962 as a mostly instrumental group.
We played a lot of Ventures and Duane Eddy, plus
instrumental covers of top 40 vocal hits.
We also wrote our own tunes!

The band members were all Cazenovia Central School students:

Howard “By” Casselbery

• Drums

• Check out Where Are They Now? & Wolf 1490

• “By” changed his name to Howie Castle and became a world renown
  Disc Jockey

JD Danck

• Rhythm Guitar

• Long before he discovered Blue Grass with the Down City Ramblers, JD played dynamite rhythm and some lead on those early instrumentals.

Jeff Owens

• Rhythm Guitar/Bass

• Played lead on several tunes including a couple he wrote. He is now a world renown Professor of Physics http://www.hep.fsu.edu/~owens/.

Dean Armstrong

• Drummer

• Dean took By’s place when he left for reasons I no longer remember. A fine drummer who perfected the “crossover” style of playing the toms.
  

Dave Novak

• Lead Guitar

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When we first got together,
JD and I were only 12, “By” was 14, and I think Jeff was 15.
The CazCats played local high school parties and dances from 1962 to 1964.
We performed regularly on WNDR, a local Syracuse AM radio station.
We played live , in the studio.
The show was hosted by Jim O'Brien, who humorously dubbed me the
"31 year old midget."
Go to the Music/Video page to hear the band, the disc jockey and
some great commercials!