FOOD 11PM TO 5AM
THURS APRIL 15
christina linard
FRI APRIL 16
Music Calendar cont’d
(7-10PM) mile marker seven
(LATE) heath green
& the martyrs
SAT APRIL 10
(7-10PM) jason bailey band
(LATE) kendra sutton show
SUN APRIL 11
(10PM - 1AM)
carlos pino jazz group
TUES APRIL 13
(10PM-TILL) OPEN stage NIGHT
w/ dan turner
30 a p r i l 15 - a p r i l 2 2 , 2 0 1 0 B I R M I N G H A M W E E K LY
music feature
If 6 was 9
Rick Carter vs Jimi Hendrix over the future of Telluride
by sam george
One of my favorite games is the Band Name
Game. If you’ve ever attempted to name a band
or if you’re a semi-obsessive listener, you’ve at
least had a band name moment. The kind where
suddenly an arbitrary sequence of words rings
that bell in your skull and you think, “That’s
a great band name!” It’s a joyful moment. I’ve
named a few bands in my day (Dick Rich-
ard, Bright Henry), and the name selection
was always preceded by a glorious torrent of
ludicrous names thrown into the ring by every
band member as well as acquaintances and even
passersby. Some of my favorites: Tragic Moose,
The Slag Buggies and Stink Fist. My point is,
thinking of band names is fun, which is one of
the reasons why not choosing an original name
was Jimi Hendrix’s first mistake.
Jimi and his friends were in a band called
Dixie Twister, and they were about to make it
big time. They were in negotiations with a label,
and the only problem was that the name of the
band had to go. But rather than come up with
a new name that was more palatable to record
brass, Hendrix and company left it to their fans
to choose for them. Not surprisingly, the fans
chose poorly.
I should clarify something here, so that people
don’t throw rocks at me. The Jimi Hendrix I am
referring to is NOT the guitar legend of yore.
He is the very much alive bass player—and yes,
Jimi Hendrix is his real name—for the new
and fan-improved Telluride, an up-and-com-
ing Nashville band whose PR copy wants me to
get excited because they “are formally trained
musicians and each plays on the entire album.”
Really? I can’t wait.
The problem with the name Telluride, as
many of you probably know, is that it’s been
taken for a long time by one of Birmingham’s
most beloved and long-lasting bands. Rick
Carter, who co-founded Telluride in 1977 and
holds the federal trademark for the name, has
now been forced to fight for his right to use his
own band name.
“They have petitioned the government to
overturn my federal trademark because they
said we abandoned the name, which we didn’t,”
Carter says. “We play every year, we have proof
of that. But unfortunately the way our legal
system works, until you can get that in front
of a judge then we can’t make them quit using
the name. We used that name for 33 years and
counting, and we’re listed as musical achievers
in the Alabama Hall of Fame.”
When I question the relevance of fighting for
band names in a post-MySpace world where
there can be many bands sharing identical
or similar names online, Carter corrects me.
“What’s relevant is the fact that we can’t put
our music on iTunes because they already have
their music up there under the name Telluride,”
Carter says. “That’s what first set me off. Why
shouldn’t our fans be able to acquire our music
that was recorded under the name of Telluride
before these members of this other band named
Telluride were even born?”
I’m tempted to pass all this off as a simple
misunderstanding, but Carter clues me in to a
Birmingham band Telluride in 1977.
Clockwise from top left:
Moose Harrell, Roger Bailey, Jim Liner,
Rick Carter and Robert Churchill.
few unsavory details. “It used to be you could
look up Telluride, and the first thing that would
come up would be on Wikipedia, and it would
say a small mining town, a derivative of fools
gold, or a Birmingham-based band started in
1977 by Rick Carter,” he says. “As soon as we
started this litigation, somehow mysteriously,
that disappeared.”
Sure enough, shortly after Rick Carter filed for
his trademark and began litigation, a Wikipe-
dia user named TenPoundHammer who was
well connected in the Nashville music scene
removed all mention of both Rick Carter’s and
the new Jimi Hendrix’s Tellurides from the
Wikipedia entry.
“This band represented a lot of people in
this town, and it was gone,” Carter. “There are
so many people that met at a Telluride show
and then got married. We did two governor’s
inaugurations. I mean, there’s a lot of musical
history that transcends actual musical perfor-
mance. That’s another thing we’re fighting for. If
and when we move past musical achiever status
at The Alabama Music Hall of Fame, and were
actually inducted what would they say, “The
band formerly known as Telluride until some
young kids came and stole it?”
What can you do to help keep Telluride a
Birmingham tradition? The record label for the
new Telluride is heaping Carter in extensions,
court filings and extra proceedings in an at-
tempt to keep this case from ever seeing a judge.
Carter’s band has set up the Telluride Defense
Fund at Regions Bank, and you can donate
there or contact the band via rick@rickcarter-
music.com.
Sam George writes about popular music and
other topics for Birmingham Weekly. He is also
an editor at the music web site bham.fm. Send
your comments to editor@bhamweekly.com.