A contest of sorts, if you will.
Background:
I’ve played music professionally and worked on the business side of the industry as a promoter and manager for many years as well. Started out as a bassist (jazz and funk) and have been playing guitar since I was about 8 (I’m 32 now). The past few years I’ve been playing more and more bluegrass and old time, on both guitar and mandolin.
The itch to get out there and perform has been growing for about 18 months now, and I’ve been woodshedding like crazy and waiting for the right group of people to present themselves.
And now they have. We’re rehearsing pretty hard, both originals and very cool covers, and are getting to the point we need a name. I will explain the styles of music we are performing and throw it to the Teeming Millions.
I will present the list of potential names to the group monday night at rehearsal. If none takes, the contest will remain open until the following week’s Monday night rehearsal.
The winner shall receive, in the mail, a nice set of CDs of local, regional and national acts (as I concert promoter, I get more CDs than you can imagine), of a nature designed to appeal to your musical tastes - from hip-hop to bluegrass, from reggae to cajun.
And you’ll get a copy of the first demo we put out, of course.
We are rehearsing a core group of three players, and will be performing both in acoustic and electric lineups. Each lineup will feature a different feel, and lean in a different direction.
The acoustic lineup will probably perform for about 5-6 months before we debut the electric in public. The music is a combination of bluegrass, old-time, classic rock and vocal group. The best current comparison is something like Alison Kraus meets the Thorns, with Robbie Robertson writing the lyrics. Or maybe something along the lines of Jeff Austin (of YMSB) and Chris Castino (of the Big Wu)'s side project, with much more powerful vocals.
In addition to our originals, which are in my pretty jaded opinion are really damn good, we are performing the following covers currently:
The Weight (The Band) - very sparse and gospel arrangement
When I’m 64 (The Beatles) - hamming up the vocals, very barbershop quartet vocals on this
Let me Touch You For A While (Alison Krauss) - pretty much verbatim
Galileo (Indigo Girls) - fairly true to the original, but Emily’s harmonies are sung by me, not a woman.
Bertha (The Dead) - a little more raw and bluesy than Bobby sang it
Bluegrass Country (Del McCoury) - pretty much verbatim, although less banjo, more mando.
Goldbrickin’ (Del McCoury) - note for note identical to the version on 'Del & The Boys - our showcase instrumental piece for my mando playing
The Old Home Place (J.D. Crowe and the New South) - pretty true to J.D. original, although the harmonies are more gospel and less true grass.
The core lineup:
me: guitar, mandolin, piano, harmonica, electric guitar, electric 5 string mandolin, lead male vocal
not me: upright, fretless acoustic-electric, electric bass, cello, female lead vocal
not me again: acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bottleneck guitar, dobro, principal lead player, harmony vocals.
in addition, around this core we are rehearsing additional players to fatten up the sound, for particular sets or audiences. For the acoustic group, the additional players (who will not always necessarily be playing, and not necessarily at the same time) are:
female: fiddle, strong alto for female harmonies
male: banjo, no vocal, but badass banjo chops
male: percussion
The electric group will feature the same core, but lean towards electric instrumentation, full drums, and a lot of jamming - in more of a ‘lot of written parts that breathe and grow kind of way’ than a masturbate with your instrument on stage kind of way. So a lot closer to a Little Feat/Allmans kind of jam than a noodly Phish/Dead kind.
What we’re looking for is a name that describes the music, doesn’t sound too silly or too pretentious, and generally captures the feel of the group.
We’ve already rejected the following:
The Last Hope String Band
Cannabis Rex (good album title, though - with a little t-rex smokin’ a joint in its stubby arms) 
Last Man Standing
The Mad City Pickers
So let’s hear what you got, Dopers!
