Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band is one of the most exciting acts on the blues scene today, exciting both hardened blues fans and younger music fans. The band name lets you know that he doesn’t take himself too seriously, which is always good. The “Big” comprises just three people: the Reverend on vocals and finger-picked guitar, his wife, Washboard Breezy Peyton, and percussionist Jacob “The Snakob” Powell, both providing vocal harmonies to the Reverend’s deep, baritone growl. Most of their music, as that spare instrumentation indicates, is just about as raw as it gets.
The Reverend says he recorded alone in his living room before the fireplace. While the band hails from Indiana, they have thoroughly researched country blues masters such as T-Model Ford, Robert Belfour, David “Honeyboy” Edwards, and more. Thus, Reverend’s tunes are mixed with a few blues classics from Robert Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Blind Willie Johnson. The album was later re-recorded, fleshed out, so to speak, by six-time Grammy winner Vance Powell (Chris Stapleton, Jack White) and seriously augmented by stellar guests on a select four tracks.
The Reverend says, “…It’s the most acoustic record we’ve made in years, using all vintage equipment: microphones, guitars, recording gear, and a lot, me and my National guitar.” Their stomping, throwback sound is aimed at extinguishing demons like their forbears. That way, when you need a lift or an outlet for your anger in these troublesome times, the Reverend is here to help. His slide on the resonator welcomes us into the opening title track, an original that begins, “Control her/I’d sooner control rain/I would rather wrestle with a coming train,” and later the chorus, “trouble, trouble, but it’s all fine.” This one’s rendered solo, all Reverend, and no adornment is needed. He then plunges into Robert Johnson’s “If I Has Possession Over Judgment Day,” giving it the passionate treatment it deserves with just a little help from his bandmates, the emphasis clearly on his blistering fretwork.
The McCrary Sisters are the first of four guests to join on vocals for “Looking For A Manger,” as the tempo recedes, we have Reverend’s gruff, rather harsh sounding in this setting, pitched against the soaring, smoother vocals of the Sisters. It’s a good idea, but the juxtaposition of the voices doesn’t quite work to these ears. “Like A Treasure” continues to ply gospel turf with harmonies from his bandmates, a better match. We hear the washboard prominently for the first time in the rambling Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “One Dime Blues,” while another of the Blind Lemon’s tunes, “Nell (Prison Cell Blues)” benefits from the stellar blues harp of Blues Hall of Famer Billy Branch as the Reverend pours out his vocal as if wants to avoid a prison sentence at all costs.
The band then deviates somewhat from its blues-gospel repertoire with “Freeborn Man, written by Mark Lindsay and Keith Allison and included in the 1969 Paul Revere & The Raiders Alias Pink Puzz. Many have covered it, but none with slicing slides paired with the fiddle of IBMA master Michael Cleveland in boisterous call-and-response with the Reverend that is a major album highlight. Another standout is the haunting “I Can’t Sleep,” rife with dexterous guitar picking and chilling vocals, the intersection of both that make’s especially compelling. The stomping character we most associate with this band is on full display in “Let’s Go” as we hear the individual voices of all three band members, the relentless guitar playing continually driving forward, this time mostly with acoustic picking as opposed to sliding strains of the folk-like hymn “The Good Die Young.” On the latter, a nice change of pace, his band mates contribute the harmonies while guest Colton Crawford of The Dead South weighs in with banjo.
Blind Willie Johnson’s “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burned” gets a faithful workout, and the rapid-fire closer “Mama Do,” gives us more bizarre lyrics -“Pickin’ up a kitten, shine it on my shoe/Put it in the pocket of a kangaroo.” to one of the most abrupt closes ever heard on record. Bottle up and go. Nobody does it like The Reverend these days.
