“The country blues is a gift of 20th-century American music, and it’s awesome to see a band tap into its legacy with so much gusto and original vision.” – Music City Roots

 

There aren’t a lot of Warped Tour veterans who can claim proficiency in the use of bottleneck slides, washboards, and five-gallon buckets. Most didn’t spend their teens playing along to Charlie Patton and Bukka White albums. And just about none are fronted by a commissioned member of the Honorary Order of Kentucky Colonels. Welcome to Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, the greatest front-porch blues band in the world.

 

Josh "The Reverend" Peyton was born April 12, 1981, in Eagletown, Indiana. His introduction to music was via his father's record collection of blues-oriented rock, including Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan. A friend then sent Peyton off on an exploration of the blues of BB King, Muddy Waters, and B.B. King's cousin, Bukka White. Further exploration led to pre-World War II "country blues” and a desire to learn the finger-picking style of artists like Charlie Patton and Mississippi John Hurt. The result has been a gift to blues lovers everywhere. Reverend Peyton is now recognized as one of the world’s foremost country blues finger-style pickers, playing the bass with his thumb while picking the lead at the same time. His prowess has been recognized with multiple Blues Music Awards nominations, including in 2021 for “Best Blues Rock Artist,” as well as being the cover subject for Vintage Guitar magazine.

 

But the Big Damn Band isn’t just about the Reverend. Beside him on stage are his wife, “Washboard” Breezy Peyton, playing with all the nuance and percussive power of a New Orleans drum line, and keeping the train moving is Max Senteney on a lean drum kit that includes a 5-gallon maple syrup bucket. And one listen will convince you that there's nothing dusty or sentimental about Peyton's music. There's no songs about picking cotton. They aren't a museum piece. The Big Damn Band have taken nearly a century of country blues history and crafted a thing all their own. “I like songs that sound happy but are actually very sad,” Peyton says. “I don’t know why it is, but I just do.”

 

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band has built its reputation the long, slow, hard way. After 12 years of playing as many as 300 shows each year, in a total of 37 countries, the biggest little band in the country has pieced together one of the most dedicated followings out there. And being willing to venture off the beaten track hasn’t hurt either. Perhaps the best example is a video of the Reverend playing a 3-string guitar fashioned out of a 12-gauge shotgun (check it out below). Peyton plays the instrument, releases the safety, targets a jug full of water, fires, then finishes the song with a laugh.

 

All in all, there is not another band out there that sounds like this or has a stage show of this caliber. So get ready to celebrate, because that is what you will end up doing when Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band graces the Canan Commons stage.