Would The Band by another name sound as sweet?

In British music critic Peter Doggett's fine book "Are You Ready for the Country: Elvis, Dylan, Parsons and the roots of country rock" (2000), I came upon this funny story by Levon Helm, winner of the 2010 (first ever) Grammy award for best Americana album for "Electric Dirt," about choosing a name in 1967 for his most famous group, The Band (Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Class of 1994):

"We were going to call ourselves the Crackers [i.e. Southern black slang for poor white folks]. I was proud to come out of an Arkansas farm, and the other guys [all Canadians] weren't exactly rich, either. So we thought we should tell it like it is. And then we figured, no, maybe it will piss people off. Sometimes I wish we had gone with the Crackers, just to push it in their faces."

Fellow Band member Richard Manuel, who committed suicide by hanging after a post-gig conversation with Helm in Florida in 1986, said that they also wanted to call themselves The Honkies. Serious as they usually sounded, The Band certainly had a sense of humor. Guitarist Robbie Robertson, writer of perhaps the Band's greatest songs ("The Weight" & "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down") let Levon take the lead vocal on those numbers. A very good move, as it turned out.

Congratulations on the Grammy, Levon. Sure wish I could attend one of those Midnight Rambles on your rural property in upstate New York. That would be a wonderful & possibly weird evening of old-fashioned entertainment.