On Oct. 14th 2001 Cottonmouth® played their final show with drummer/brother Butch McMaster III as he would die tragically on Oct. 23rd in an auto accident in which he was the passenger. We knew that Butch wouldn't want us to quit and because of our true love of music Cottonmouth® played on. We threw together a quick compilations of songs the band had recorded while waiting for the HDR 24/96 to arrive that featured an improvisational style. We would push record and just jam for hours capturing every magic moment. The plan was to eventually do this live. In 2002 Stash Benefit was released at the Butch McMaster benefit.

COTTONMOUTH uses a writing style in which the songs come together through improvisational jam sessions. We just roll tape with no direction or idea and let the magic of the music do the rest. Owning our own recording studio allows us to catch all of those magic moments on tape. Track 1-5 (recorded on the MACKIE D8B/HDR24/96) and 7-8 are examples of what we call improvs that we use as reference points in our song writing. This style of writing allows us to truly express ourselves with no barriers. In Butch's words... "We hope these songs make you feel as good as we were feeling when we recorded them."