The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band

The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band is an American roots blues trio from Brown County, Indiana. The group is led by guitarist and singer Josh “Reverend” Peyton, with Breezy Peyton on washboard and vocals, and Ben “Birddog” Bussell on drums. Their music draws on Mississippi Delta blues from the 1920s and 1930s, while also using country-blues and electric-blues traditions as a foundation.

Formation and early background

Josh Peyton is born and raised in Indiana and first hears music through his father’s record collection, which includes Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan. He starts on a Kay guitar given to him at 12, later adding an amplifier. As a teenager, he forms his first band, Drive-Thru, with his brother Jayme Peyton on drums and a mutual friend on bass, and plays parties and dances while developing a stronger interest in older blues styles such as those associated with Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Bukka White and Charley Patton.

After finishing high school, Peyton breaks up Drive-Thru because of severe tendonitis that makes playing painful. Following a period working as a hotel desk clerk, he has surgery at the Indiana Hand Center that allows him to play again. Around the same time, he meets Breezy, who shares his interest in blues. They marry and form a band with Josh on guitar and vocals and Breezy on vocals and washboard, with Jayme Peyton on drums. This line-up becomes The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band.

Style and line-up

The band performs as a trio but builds a fuller sound through thick, bass-heavy guitar parts, growling vocals, sparse but forceful drumming, and the metallic scrape of the washboard. They are noted as one of the first rock bands to regularly use the washboard since Black Oak Arkansas.

Recordings and labels

The band plays a heavy live schedule and records its first album, The Pork n' Beans Collection, in 2004, self-releasing it and selling many copies at shows. Two more self-released albums follow: Big Damn Nation in 2006 and The Gospel Album in 2007. The group then signs to Side One Dummy, releasing The Whole Fam Damily in 2008 as its first album for the label.

In late 2009, Jayme Peyton leaves and Aaron “Cuz” Persinger takes over the drum kit, using a modified bucket as part of the setup. The band continues on Side One Dummy with Peyton on Patton in 2011, a collection of Charley Patton covers, and Between the Ditches in 2012. Persinger later leaves and Ben “Bird Dog” Bussell joins on drums in 2013.

In 2014 the band signs to Yazoo Records, and So Delicious appears under that label in 2015. For The Front Porch Sessions in 2017, the group works with Thirty Tigers and self-produces the record.