"Cut You Loose" -- Mark Collen's Trouble Monkey WITH *VERY* SPECIAL GUESTS July 27, 2001
Channel: Mark C.
Date: 18/03/2022

My regrettably defunct very fun band, Trouble Monkey, playing at Livingston, MT's Murray Hotel Bar. (The Murray is where Sam Peckinpah lodged while filming "The Wild Bunch," and the Murray has proudly retained, in his former room, the hole he blasted in one of the walls with a fkn hand-cannon (pistol) in a fit of Peckinpawish-ness that is a perfect emblem of the vibe of that classic bloodbath, er, American Treasure. 

As happened more than once at the Murray, Very Famous Bluesician Royalty had earlier-evening gigs nearby & made our little white-boy-blues hearts pitter-patter to dangerous cardiac levels by dropping in and sitting in for whole extended stretches of multiple sets! 

On this night, it was a guy whose name you might not know, but whose resume says you've definitely heard him, & in Strictly Varsity settings.

His name is Max Drake, & his "I Want Candy" breakout here [at the 3-minute mark] is Pure. Fkn. Rock'n'Rollin' Blues Filet Mignon. (I stole it as a permanent-from-that-day-forward re-arrangement of what had already, as previously arranged, gotten us "Best Blues Single" on MP3.com (online-music-history-wise, was to iTunes what "Myspace" is to Facebook. He also blew our collective mind, and forever altered our arrangement, with his solo on our take on "Kansas City"--his twenty-four bar masterpiece is among the absolute top musical moments of my life...SO full of life, spark, & musical je-ne-sais-wtf).

Max has been sideman to BB King, Gatemouth Brown, and a hundred other blues legends...the night we met him, he was in town with Muddy Waters' son (Big Bill Morganfield).

We had just launched into a tune that, while it was a stretch for our 'talents', has seemingly daunted every good band on the planet into not even attempting it: Skynyrd's (by way of Steve Gaines) "I Know A Little". We at least made a valiant STAB at it, while no other band I know of has even TRIED to get it off the ground lol.

Almost immediately, there was a huge clatter from the stairs leading down to the bar from the hotel accommodations...and Max Drake came banging out of the staircase-door with a '50s Broadcaster that screamed "I was heisted from the Smithsonian" it was so solid vintage gold, and in mutual love for such toe-tappin', butt-rockin' material, he eagerly shared the entire rest of the night with us.

Here's one of the highlights. (I'll follow up with a few more from him, but without such long notes).

Coincidentally, the same night, one of our favorite horn players in the world, who was usually tied up with a 17-piece suit-&-tie literal-schoolbus-full-of-blues-ensemble that played gigs like the Olympics Opening Ceremonies etc, called "Bluejack" (one of those annoying "they won ALL the blues awards AGAIN?" bands aggregating, like, two platoons worth of Blues Legends in one school-bus-mobile-supergroup). Guy named Tom Schuur -- who also kills it on guitar...and who actually also ended up in Bellingham WA (where I am now) roughly the same time I did.

Tom's sax is a sweet, sweet relish on top of this and the other "MDTS" tunes ("Max Drake/Tom Schuur").

So here is Otis Rush's "Cut You Loose" as re-arranged by Trouble Monkey, then RE-re-arranged by "Mad" Max Drake.