This month I’m wearing my classic country DJ hat (size 7.5) and working at SiriusXM Willie’s Roadhouse on weekday mornings most of this month. While on the air the other day I played Stateside by Mel Tillis, and I was reminded about the country music tradition of naming your band after one of your hit songs, which explains Mel Tillis and the Statesiders.
For a while, after Mel’s Urban Cowboy-era hit Coca-Cola Cowboy, he changed the name of his band to Mel Tillis and the Coca-Cola Cowboys but eventually reverted to the Statesiders name.
Other examples are Gene Watson and the Farewell Party Band, Merle Haggard & The Strangers, or Bill Anderson & The Po Folks Band.
This trend was especially strong in the 1960s, eclipsed for a while in the ’70s when artists would simply go by “The (Name of Star) Show,” so you had The Roy Clark Show, The Tammy Wynette Show, etc. This was a little on the drab side, and fortunately faded in the 1980s. When bluegrass artist Karl Shiflett adopted this form, though, and called his band The Karl Shiflett & Big Country Show, it had a throwback feel that fit the band well, though it always led to a lot of botched introductions by MCs who dropped “The” and just called them “Karl Shiflett and Big Country SHOW!”
In bluegrass music, the naming-the-band-after-the-hit trend never took hold, with Jimmy Martin & The Sunny Mountain Boys being a notable exception, named for Sunny Side of the Mountain. If Flatt & Scruggs had named their band after Foggy Mountain Breakdown, that would be another case but I think The Foggy Mountain Boys came first, inspired by the Carter Family’s Foggy Mountain Top.
I think we might have missed an opportunity for more of these kinds of band names, with numerous possibilities we’ve been overlooking. Here are some ideas:
Alison Krauss & The Steel Rails
Alison Krauss & The Nothing-sayers
Or, to be more current:
Alison Krauss & The Richmonds on the James
Mac Wiseman and the Sweet Rememberers
Or:
Mac Wiseman & The Four Walls, which sounds a little better than Mac Wiseman & The Old Folks at Home.
Flatt & Scruggs & The Dim Lights probably sends the wrong message about the band’s energy. Maybe Flatt & Scruggs & The Jimmy Browns the Newsboy is better.
We would never have called this “bluegrass music” if it had been Bill Monroe & The Blue Moons of Kentucky. I think Bill Monroe & The Mule Skinners would have been a great name, definitely superior to Bill Monroe & The Mollies and Tenbrookses or The Bill Monroe & The Uncles Pen.
Someone would later use The Dreadful Snakes because Bill never did.
Dan Tyminski could obviously have gone with Dan Tyminski & The Men of Constant Sorrow (if it was an all-male and depressed band, which it isn’t). Maybe it’s preferable to Dan Tyminski & The God-Fearing Heathens, which somehow gives the impression of a band that could trash hotel rooms. In the end, Dan went with our fallback naming system in bluegrass: The Dan Tyminski Band.
Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver started out briefly as Doyle Lawson & Foxfire, but perhaps Doyle could have gone with Doyle Lawson & The Mis’ry Rivers.
Instead of The Clinch Mountain Boys, the Stanley Brothers could have opted for The Stanley Brothers & The Pigs in a Pen or The Rank Strangers (who might have been working with the pigs in a pen for just a little too long).
Reno & Smiley & The Emotions or Reno & Smiley & The Talks of the Town could have worked.
For gospel shows: Reno & Smiley & The Bibles Used For Roadmaps.
J.D. Crowe & The Ten Degrees (if it’s a large band) or possibly drawing on earlier material: J.D. Crowe & The Heart Searchers.
Jim & Jesse & The Hard Hearts, which is probably preferable to Jim & Jesse & The Diesels on My Tail or Jim & Jesse & The Nobodies But You.
Laurie Lewis has had Grant Street and The Bluegrass Pals, but Laurie Lewis & The Home Place Watchers has a nice ring to it.
Larry Sparks & The John Deere Tractors is also a pretty natural choice.
Del McCoury & The 52 Vincents is actually a great name, unless it leads promoters to expect a 52-piece band (with every member named Vincent).
I’m not sure about Peter Rowan & The Lands of the Navajo.
