Sat. Nov. 10 

Mark Cutler - you may know him from leading the '80s bands the Schemers and the Rain Dogs, which began in 1990 (its name a tip of the hat to Tom Watis - checks in, ahead of his record release gig at Sally O'Brien's Saturday Nov. 10. His new band is called The Men of Great Courage and, well, that could describe anybody still plying the rock 'n' roll trade well over the sell-by date (as far as the pop world is concerned) of your mid-20s. Cutler and company release their CD, "Sweet Pain," this summer, a mix of roots rock, garage and country. Both the Schemers and Rain Dogs
    We asked Cutler (in photo by Renee L'Abbe)  if he'd give us trip through his rock history. He e-mailed us: I’ve been playing music for over 40 years. It’s literally been a life saver many times. My first band was called JEM (John, Eddy and Mark). We played 'The Pusher," "Born To Be Wild" and "Let it Be" for our sixth grade graduation.  In seventh grade I played "Cowgirl in the Sand" JSINk: Nice transition, Steppenwolf - Beatles - Neil Young - for an Oral English class. Oral English was just another way of saying, “Public Speaking” and it was terrifying. I was grateful that Mrs. Durrigan  let me sing my way through that one class. I played in rock bands when I was a young teen. I got to hang out with the older kids in the area because I played guitar in their bands. I played in inner city night clubs, VFW halls and high school dances.
    After I graduated high school, I studied art at RI college but my main love was guitar and sometimes dope. I put an ad in the local music paper saying that I was looking for a band that needed a guitar player. Some Brown University students contacted me and I joined a Southern rock band named, Windy Mountain. We did Allman Brothers, Pure Prairie League, Linda Ronstadt, Little Feat and other bands of that ilk.
But soon we snuck in some New Wave and convinced the female singer to do the Patti Smith-Bruces Springsteen song "Because the Night." I always like Patti and "Radio Ethiopia" remains one of my favorite albums. One of my Windy Mountain highlights was the time we got to open for the Doug Sahm's Band and Doug invited me onstage to play a bunch of songs. It was a wonderful time. When I got off stage, real pretty older woman close-danced with me.
     I ended up leaving Windy Mountain because I took too much LSD one night before a gig. A so called friend had some liquid form of the stuff. Two or three drops would have been plenty but he gave me a lot, lot more and I totally freaked out. That would be the last time I did that stuff.  Upon leaving Windy Mountain, I started a band called The Users. I wrote some songs and we recorded them. A local DJ named Uncle Bernie would play our stuff on his free form FM radio show. Soon, the Users morphed into The Schemers. We had a really soulful lead singer named Ed Tabella. He was a David Johansen/Paul Rodgers disciple. He had a set of pipes that would rattle the walls. Our debut gig was at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel. We opened for Sam and Dave. Sam or Dave, came outside and smoked hash with a couple of us then did a kick ass show. However, they split up after that show and it was the last time they sang together for a very long time. Ed left our band and I became the lead singer and main songwriter. We kicked around the RI club scene. It was very fertile ground. The drinking age was 18 and everybody was going out to see live music.
     In 1982, We won the WBRU Rock Hunt in and then the WBCN Rumble in 1984. We did a live appearance on MTV and played all over the northeast. The Schemers opened up for diverse acts from Jerry Lee Lewis to the Dead Kennedys.  Jerry Lee told me that he was going to hell. I toasted to hell and we all had a good laugh and got along famously. (JSInk note: The Killer and I have had the heaven or hell conversation more than a few times ... Here's what he told me in 1985: "I've never claimed to be a real Christian; I claim to be a Christian-minded person. I don't claim to be perfect by any means. I believe everybody's got to die and face God some day. And I believe that I'll go to heaven when I die." He also noted that despite the suspicius deaths of two of his wives, he had no hand in it.)
     After about 8 years of being in the Schemers, I got a phone call from Darren Hill and Jimmy Reilly, the Red Rockers rhythm section. They heard a song of mine on WBCN and asked if I wanted to start a band with them. They also mentioned that they had world great Celtic fiddler, Johnny Cunningham in the mix. It sounded like just what I needed so I moved up to Boston and started the Raindogs. We got signed to ATCO records and put out two pretty cool cds (IMHO). We toured with Bob Dylan, Warren Zevon, the Waterboys and got Iggy Pop and Harry Dean Stanton to do guest appearances on our record. Darren and I got to hang with Harry Dean at his house (JSInk note: We, too, hung with Harry Dean, at the bar, following a gig of his at the late, latmented Nightstage. A great bout of post-gig imbibing if I remember, but not ask specifics.) and we watched the Lakers play.
    The Raindogs were together for about 6 years and we toured a real lot. ATCO folded and we were tired, so we folded our tent, too, and went our separate ways. I had new born son and I stayed local. I got a day job to get health insurance and put some dough away for my boy’s college. I vowed to myself that I would never stop playing music.  I put out a solo CD called G"as Boy" and it got picked up for distribution in Europe and also made a bunch of top ten lists. My family life was not so well though. My wife asked me to leave and I wrote a song called "Wrecking Ball" that quotes her, “Get out, get out, get out.”"  I put another recording called “Skylolo”. It was named after the little wrestler. I’m actually mentioned in his biography in the WWW hall of fame. I love that. My good friends, David Minehan and Tom Buckland co-produced it with me.
    From there, me and a bunch of friends started a band called, The Dino Club. It was inspired by Nick Tosches book “Dino”. We wrote drinking songs and had a good time making a couple of pretty decent records. After the Dino boys went their separate ways, I started to work on a solo record. It took a few years to finish but I think it came out really well. It’s titled “Red” and was co-produced by my ex Schemer/Raindog bandmate Emerson Torrey.  It made a few best of lists and I’m pretty proud of it.  One night, me and some musician friends were Bo Diddley’s back up band. I was the one who introduce him. He told me that he wanted to introduced as “The Mighty Bo Diddley” Of course! Bo is fucking mighty alright.
     I did a few movie soundtracks for a couple of horror movies and a couple of documentaries. A little while later, I began putting material together for my latest release, “Sweet Pain”. That record came out in June of this year. I’m particularly proud of it because we worked quick and dirty and kept really true to our vision and to the spirit of rock n roll. It was co produced by, Emerson, Jack Gauthier and myself and some of it was even recorded at my own little studio. I’m working on my next project now. It’s almost finished and it’s going to be a small and close up kind of recording.Still working the day job but I’m never giving up being creative. I’d go insane if it weren’t for music. I feel lucky to have something that I love to do.   

Recent clips:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lmGX9THZcg  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8iymXQ0fro

   The Men of Great Courage include bassist Jimmy Berger, keyboardist Dickie Reed, Banjor Bob Kirkman, on mandolin, guitar and, yep, banjo, and drummer Rick Couto. The gig starts at 10 with Twang 'Em High opening. Cover: $5.

3354 Somerville Ave., Somerville, 617-666-3589 www.sallyobriensbar.com