Some rockabilly band in Amsterdam stole my online identity.
Well, they didn’t really steal it, they just changed the name of their band to MY internet name sometime between August and December of 2012.
Now I can understand why they changed their name from “Lee and the hillbilly blues combo” to “BARNBEES” as that was quite a mouthful. Even shortened to “Lee and the HBC” (as on the logo of their old website) is not as catchy or as cool for a band establishing an online presense, growing a fan base, or just plain ol’ being a band.
I can understand WHY they picked “BARNBEES” as a good name for their band. They come by it honestly. Seems the last name of the man named Lee in the Lee and whatever happens to be Barnbee, so it makes perfect sense for Lee Barnbee to call his band BARNBEES. It is a good name for a band, easy to remember, and googles up easy.
That’s how I heard about this… I googled myself the other night and found them.
The polite thing for me to do would be to bow out gracefully. As in quit using it, let them have it.
Afterall, they are a band and I’m just a person… if they hit it big in the music business, achieve global success, people will assume that I am using THEIR name regardless of the fact that I was using barnbees first.
I considered doing that… then I realized what a pain it would be just trying to remember everywhere I set myself up as barnbees over the years.
Then what would happen if I did pick a new name, google it out first to make sure no one else is using it before making all these changes and someone else comes along and takes THAT name? Do it again?
What would you do?
If I do nothing, we will trip over each other.
Part of me says let them trip, get the “name not available” messages if they want to set up as barnbees anywhere I already am… if they want me to give up barnbees, they can ASK me proper.
I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the idea of rockabilly music being popular in the Netherlands. Barnbees play that blend of country, rock, and blues that’s so American. They play Johnny Cash. It seems odd, about as unexpected as a Japanese Polka or an Irish group playing Mariachis. But, what do I know?
To be fair, they do write some of their own songs. Oh geez… speaking of which, I wonder if Lee Barnbee would be amused to know that the other “barnbees” on the internet just happens to be a woman twice his size.
Well, not quite anymore.
I think a distraction is in order. I should get busy, take advantage of low humidity and give that mosaic guitar another coat of cement-less grout. I love and hate that grout at the same time. It is nice for big projects as work time is longer, but it takes so long to set up on humid days that it drips out anywhere that is not laid out flat.
I also need to think about what to put in the holes on the headstock once it is done grouted and those straw bits keeping the holes open are pulled out. The tuners, bridge, and nut were salvaged as parts for making cigar box guitars.
See? Old music never dies… worthless guitars become art, parts go on to make new musical instruments, and old Cash tunes land in the Netherlands.
Barnbees 