Showing posts with label Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Honeysuckle

Album: Honeysuckle
Size: 81,5 MB
Time: 35:02
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2025
Styles: Blues/Roots/Folk
Art: Front

1. Honeysuckle (3:11)
2. If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day (2:50)
3. Looking For A Manger (3:06)
4. Like A Treasure (2:28)
5. One Dime Blues (2:11)
6. Nell (Prison Cell Blues) (2:44)
7. Freeborn Man (4:01)
8. I Can't Sleep (3:51)
9. Let Me Go (2:47)
10. The Good Die Young (3:10)
11. Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning (2:13)
12. Mama Do (2:24)

There’s something deeply satisfying about a record that knows exactly what it wants to be. Honeysuckle, the latest offering from The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, is an unapologetic, foot-stomping showcase of rugged bluegrass, country, and blues. Armed with signature fingerpicking, driving rhythms, and a competent backing band, Peyton delivers a batch of infectious tunes.

The album kicks off with the title track, a formidable bluegrass number that sets the tone right away. Peyton’s slide work is sharp, and his booming vocals carry the kind of grit that immediately draws you into the band’s jagged soundscape. Their take on Robert Johnson’s “If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” is another standout moment. Johnson’s ghost has been summoned in countless ways over the years, but Peyton injects the classic number with fresh life, turning it into a blistering slide-heavy workout that feels revitalized.

“Like a Treasure” follows in a more restrained manner, with a warmth that makes it one of the album’s more reflective moments. Then there’s “One Dime,” which leans heavily into a country twang, bringing a playful storytelling element to the forefront. The collaborations on Honeysuckle also add some depth. “Prison Cell Blues” benefits immensely from Billy Branch’s harmonica work, making it a raw, evocative take on Blind Lemon Jefferson’s material. Meanwhile, “Freeborn Man” is a bluegrass burner that showcases Michael Cleveland’s fiddle virtuosity alongside Peyton’s frenetic picking attack. The interplay between instruments makes it one of the most exciting moments on the record.

For a change of pace, “I Can’t Sleep” dials things down, offering a slow-burning, somber atmosphere that highlights Peyton’s ability to deliver emotional weight when needed. It’s another well-placed breather to the album’s mostly lively proceedings. Another highlight, “Let Go” is a rollicking, high-energy piece which has the band’s chemistry on full display, with Breezy Peyton’s adept washboard clicks and Jacob Powell’s deep, thumping percussion anchoring the rhythm.

Honeysuckle is a fun, rootsy record that plays to the band’s strengths. It’s filled with energy, strong musicianship, and a genuine love for the traditions it draws from. As a fan of acts like Amigo the Devil and The Devil Makes Three, I tend to gravitate toward the darker, more grotesque side of Americana, but The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band brings a brightness and sense of excitement that’s hard to resist.

The album is consistently engaging, though it doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel. Some moments feel more like variations on familiar structures rather than new statements, but when the performances are this tight, that’s hardly a valid complaint. Overall, Honeysuckle is a solid affair - catchy, well-played, and packed with moments that will have you stomping along. /Fidel Beserra, Blues Rock Review

Honeysuckle mc
Honeysuckle gofile

Thursday, April 8, 2021

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Dance Songs For Hard Times

Size: 81.0 MB
Time: 34:37
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2021
Styles: Delta Blues, Country Blues
Art: Front

01. Ways And Means (3:38)
02. Rattle Can (2:53)
03. Dirty Hustlin' (3:25)
04. I'll Pick You Up (3:17)
05. Too Cool To Dance (3:04)
06. No Tellin' When (2:49)
07. Sad Songs (3:21)
08. Crime To Be Poor (3:15)
09. 'Til We Die (2:48)
10. Nothing's Easy But You And Me (2:50)
11. Come Down Angels (3:11)

The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band are the greatest front-porch blues band in the world. They are led by Reverend Peyton, who most consider to be the premier finger picker playing today. He has earned a reputation as both a singularly compelling performer and a persuasive evangelist for the rootsy, country blues styles that captured his imagination early in life and inspired him and his band to make pilgrimages to Clarksdale, Mississippi to study under such blues masters as T-Model Ford, Robert Belfour and David “Honeyboy” Edwards. The band has built through their legendary live shows. Playing as many as 300 shows each year, the band has one of the most dedicated followings out there. This following is sure to eat up the band’s latest offering, Dance Songs For Hard Times, a country blues record that was made the right way — two feet on the ground and both hands getting dirty.

Dance Songs For Hard Times MP3
Dance Songs For Hard Times FLAC

Thursday, October 4, 2018

Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Poor Until Payday

Size: 76,2 MB
Time: 32:18
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2018
Styles: Country Blues, Blues Rock
Art: Front

01. You Can't Steal My Shine (2:56)
02. Dirty Swerve (3:57)
03. Poor Until Payday (3:53)
04. So Good (3:13)
05. Church Clothes (3:07)
06. Get The Family Together (2:47)
07. Me And The Devil (3:16)
08. Frenchmen Street (3:27)
09. I Suffer, I Get Tougher (3:11)
10. It Is Or It Ain't (2:27)

While they're only a trio, the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band deliver a sound that lives up to their name, with thick, bass-heavy, blues-based guitar figures and growling vocals accompanied by muscular but minimal drumming and the metallic percussive scratch of a washboard (making them one of the first rock bands to regularly feature the latter instrument since Black Oak Arkansas). The group was formed by guitarist and singer Josh "Reverend" Peyton, who was born and raised in Indiana, and first exposed to music through his father's record collection, which was heavy on Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan -- all artists with their own take on the blues. When Josh was 12 years old, his dad gave him a Kay guitar, and once he learned his way around the instrument, he got an amp to go along with it. With his brother Jayme Peyton on drums and a mutual friend on bass, Josh formed his first band, Drive-Thru, and began playing parties and dances as Josh developed a greater passion for vintage blues, ranging from the electric blues of icons like Muddy Waters and B.B. King to country-blues artists such as Bukka White and Charley Patton. Not long after finishing high school, Josh broke up Drive-Thru after developing a severe case of tendonitis that made it extremely painful for him to play the guitar. However, after a year working as a hotel desk clerk, doctors at the Indiana Hand Center were able to perform surgery that allowed him to play the guitar again, and around the same time, he met a woman named Breezy, who shared his love of the blues. The two fell in love and eventually married; they decided to form a band, with Josh on guitar and vocals, and Breezy on vocals and washboard. Jayme Peyton rounded out the group on drums, and the Big Damn Band was born. The band hit the road hard -- they play up to 250 dates a year -- and in 2004 cut their first album, The Pork n' Beans Collection, which they self-released, selling thousands of copies at the merch table at their shows. After two more self-released albums (2006's Big Damn Nation and 2007's The Gospel Album), Peyton's Big Damn Band struck a deal with Side One Dummy, a punk label with a fondness for aggressive roots music, and 2008's The Whole Fam Damily was their first release for the label. In late 2009, Jayme Peyton left the Big Damn Band, and Aaron "Cuz" Persinger took over the group's makeshift drum kit (complete with a modified bucket). Two more albums for Side One Dummy followed (2011's Peyton on Patton, with the group covering the songs of blues legend Charley Patton, and 2012's Between the Ditches) before Persinger left the Big Damn Band and Ben "Bird Dog" Bussell signed on as drummer in 2013. In 2014, the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band signed a new record deal with the relaunched blues label Yazoo Records; their first release for the company, So Delicious, dropped in January 2015. For 2017's self-produced, down-home The Front Porch Sessions, the group signed to Thirty Tigers. ~ Mark Deming

Poor Until Payday MP3
Poor Until Payday FLAC

Friday, December 29, 2017

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - So Delicious

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:15
Size: 99.0 MB
Styles: Juke joint blues, Country blues
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[3:08] 1. Let's Jump A Train
[5:01] 2. Pot Roast And Kisses
[5:16] 3. Dirt
[4:27] 4. Raise A Little Hell
[4:32] 5. Scream At The Night
[2:30] 6. Hell Naw
[3:50] 7. Front Porch Trained
[2:58] 8. Pickin Pawpaws
[4:21] 9. We Live Dangerous
[2:15] 10. You're Not Rich
[4:52] 11. Music And Friends

Southern Indiana-bred singer-guitarist Reverend Peyton is the bigger-than-life frontman of Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. He has earned a reputation as both a singularly compelling performer and a persuasive evangelist for the rootsy country blues styles that captured his imagination early in life and inspired him and his band to make pilgrimages to Clarksdale, Mississippi to study under such blues masters as T-Model Ford, Robert Belfour and David “Honeyboy” Edwards. That passionate inspiration has made Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band America’s foremost country blues outfit and fuels the Rev’s releases.

So Delicious mc
So Delicious zippy

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - So Delicious!

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 43:09
Size: 98.8 MB
Styles: Hill country blues
Year: 2015
Art: Front

[3:08] 1. Let's Jump A Train
[5:01] 2. Pot Roast And Kisses
[5:16] 3. Dirt
[4:27] 4. Raise A Little Hell
[4:32] 5. Scream At The Night
[2:30] 6. Hell Naw
[3:48] 7. Front Porch Trained
[2:58] 8. Pickin' Pawpaws
[4:19] 9. We Live Dangerous
[2:15] 10. You're Not Rich
[4:51] 11. Music And Friends

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band release their fifth album, So Delicious, on a revitalized Yazoo Records via Shanachie. Yazoo is a storied blues label and it's a good fit for the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band, a trio from the backwoods of Indiana whose members desperately wish they hailed from the Delta. Such geographical displacement has a long history in American music -- in the back half of the 20th century, John Fogerty's swamp rock from San Francisco might be the best known -- so Peyton and his crew don't feel like charlatans: they're Americans who like to live in their ideal fantasy world. The funny thing about So Delicious is that for showing up on a blues label, it can rock pretty hard, something the clattering opening "Let's Jump a Train" makes plain, but the Big Damn Band aren't the Black Keys; they don't pump up and amplify their blues for arenas, but are happy to sit on a front porch during a hot Sunday afternoon. That's an intimate situation and, appropriately, the group slides some sweetness onto So Delicious, such as the gentle "Scream at the Night" and the ode to family "Pickin Pawpaws" (also quiet is the spectral solo slide guitar of "You're Not Rich," but that haunts instead of comforts). Still, the operative order of this record is a bit of full-tilt boogie and good times, an album that acknowledges there's nothing finer than pot roast and kisses from the one you love. In other words, this is big, burly blues whose heart belongs at home. ~Stephen Thomas Erlewine

So Delicious! mc
So Delicious! zippy

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - The Whole Fam Damnily

Bitrate: MP3@320K/s
Time: 39:45
Size: 91.0 MB
Styles: Juke joint blues
Year: 2008
Art: Front

[3:05] 1. Can't Pay The Bill
[2:28] 2. Mama's Fried Potatoes
[4:14] 3. Worn Out Shoe
[3:01] 4. Dt's Or The Devil
[3:54] 5. Your Cousin's On Cops
[3:24] 6. John Hughes
[2:46] 7. The Creeks Are All Bad
[2:47] 8. Them Old Days Are Gone
[3:11] 9. Walmart Killed The Country Stores
[3:02] 10. I'd Love You Baby
[2:53] 11. Everybody's Getting Paid But Me
[2:49] 12. What's Mine Is Yours
[2:05] 13. Persimmon Song

The Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band has always been strong on authenticity, playing music that blends blues, ragtime, folk, country and other traditional styles with the sleek modern energy of do-it-yourself, homespun, punk fueled rock. And performing tunes plucked from their lives, their community or from the canonical songbook that fed the Rev. Peyton’s formative creative identity. It’s a mix that’s allowed the band to win fans from all corners of the Americana and rock worlds, and bring a new generation to blues and other forms of American roots music.

The Whole Fam Damnily mc
The Whole Fam Damnily zippy

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band - Between The Ditches

Bitrate: 320K/s
Time: 48:07
Size: 110.2 MB
Styles: Americana, Delta blues
Year: 2012
Art: Front

[2:45] 1. Devils Look Like Angels
[3:38] 2. Something For Nothing
[3:46] 3. We'll Get Through
[4:04] 4. Big Blue Chevy '72
[2:52] 5. Shut The Screen
[3:43] 6. Shake 'em Off Like Fleas
[3:45] 7. Easy Come Easy Go
[3:54] 8. I Don't Know
[3:18] 9. Don't Grind It Down
[4:27] 10. The Money Goes
[2:21] 11. Move Along Mister
[3:12] 12. Between The Ditches
[3:22] 13. Brokedown Everywhere
[2:55] 14. Brown County Bound

Roaring out of the southern Indiana foothills comes Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band playing a brand of Americana and Blues that stands alone – Delta blues and hillbilly fervor combine with musical acuity sharp as razor wire – best know, this trio is a force to be reckoned with. The growl of a good truck engine, the fiercest passion for his country home and family and an uncanny ability to breathe new life into old forms of music give them a pedigree many Americana acts would kill for and an ironclad work ethic keeps them on the road 250 dates a year, playing for the people with hurricane force. Locked in with an audience, the band create their own community and welcome the crowd into it, transporting them away from their troubles to joyous release, the way great musicians have done for centuries. The Rev. J. Peyton, his wife Breezy and Ben “Bird Dog” Bussell are a living breathing embodiment of the traditions and hard work ethic native to their Brown County, Indiana home. Their new album Between The Ditches is a chronicle of this lifestyle.

With a reputation for their incendiary live shows well established, The Big Damn Band set out to make the album that would finally capture the same heat. Recorded at White Arc Studio in Bloomington, Indiana, the album was produced by The Rev. Peyton and Paul Mahern (John Mellencamp, Iggy Pop), and mastered by Brian Lucey (Black Keys, Dr. John, Shins). For previous albums, the band had recorded live, straight through in the same mode as a live show. Between the Ditches came together more slowly, with care. “We approached it saying we were going to make a record this time, not just a recording,” explained the Rev. He used a different guitar set up on almost every track, employing two ’30s National guitars, a cigar box guitar, a custom shop Gibson flattop 1929 L2 and an Airline map electric guitar. The primary amps are custom Weber amps made by Weber speakers – both are one of a kind.

Their fifth album, Between The Ditches features a new level of craftmanship in both recording technique and songwriting. The Rev. feels that it’s their best album to date.”I’m very proud of this album, the songwriting and the playing.” The guitar playing alone should put the Rev. in the same class with his much revered idols. The songwriting boasts an added maturity and runs the gamut in subject matter from the barn burning, tongue in cheek, “Shut the Screen”, (where “It’s too dang hot and the bugs are too dang mean”) to the evils of strip mining, an issue close to the hearts of this Indiana born and bred band in, “Don’t Grind It Down”. There seems to be a theme expressed throughout the album and stated clearly in their first single,“Devils Look Like Angels”: “Devil don’t live down in hell, the devil’s right here doing very well”.

Between The Ditches mc
Between The Ditches zippy