Met some old radio buddies last night at a free outdoor concert in downtown Cincinnati. The headliner was The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band. And damn were they good!
You can be a three-piece and be a Big Damn Band when you play like they do. Reverend Peyton is a killer guitar player, his wife Breezy plays washboard, and drummer Ben plays a kit that has an upside down pickle barrel on it.
Not quite sure how to describe their music… it’s “old-timey” but newfangled. It’s bluesy, but it’s a highly caffeinated version of the blues. Here’s the blurb from their bio:
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.
Yep, that sounds about right.
Reverend is from Brown County, Indiana, the least populous county in the entire state. Nashville, Indiana is in Brown County, and for more than 25 years it housed the Little Nashville Opry, an Indiana venue that hosted hundreds of legendary country music stars. The Reverend and his Big Damn Band could teach the folks in “Big Nashville” a thing or three about authenticity.
Here’s the Rev playing 18 different instruments during John Henry:
And here’s the band raising a little hell:
The band puts on a fantastic, high energy show, so if you ever get a chance to meet the Reverend Peyton, it’ll do your soul a lot of good.
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