It’s a question we get all the time: where did you get your name from? Well, sit back and grab a cold one and I’ll regale you a while.
Brian, Lee, and Wade are go-getters. When it comes to making a decision, each takes little time messing around. They get ‘er done. Except when it comes to band names. Over the years of playing together, band names have been bandied about like Washingtons at a gentlemens club. Among the contenders were gems like “Killing Time”, “88 Keys”, “Shoreline Boulevard”, “Unwilling Sons”, “Nailed”, and “Mourning Hill” to name a mere handful. Identifying a band name was like identifying which shot fucked you up.
An impasse. Nothing doing. No Dice. Getting the three of us to agree was as difficult as getting your kids to brush their teeth without leaving mounds of toothpaste in the sink. Finally we settled on “American Embers”. Yes. It has the country feel Brian wanted, the flare Wade wanted, and the finality Lee wanted. We were set. Let’s gig! We booked a paying set at the Buckhorn Saloon in Ingleside, Texas. We bombed so bad our drummer quit. Read more of that experience in a future post.
“American Embers” was now a stain on our conscience as permanent as that one time you drank too much in high school and soiled your best friend’s curtains. To start fresh, we had to start fresh. Months of bickering lead us to “Boxcar88”; it was still jamming the country roots with a bit of Americana and an homage to piano keys (an instrument not in the band) and think of the how original the album cover would be!
We spent several months as “Boxcar88” and the more it simmered in our brains, the worse it became; like that time you put blueberries in a bottle of rum to enhance its flavor only to taste it and ruin another set of curtains. We could hear the inevitable questions that would pour from our adoring fans: Were we trying to be like “Matchbox21”? What’s a boxcar? Who was born in 1988? Did we turn a screen-name into a band name?
We were back at it. Only this time, no name would come. It was as elusive as that pile of dog crap you can smell in your house but can never find.
Then one day, an epiphany! Wade presented “The East & The Crow”. With no explanation, no hesitation, the band was in agreement (likely because each member assumed HE was the crow and the rest of the band the east). It was a perfect fit like that incredible Tshirt was ten years ago, before “the weight”. We knew we’d get questions about it that we couldn’t answer and that was ok. It just felt right.
And so, “The East & The Crow” was named.