Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band – Honeysuckle
Family Owned Records
12 Tracks – 35 minutes
Josh “Reverend” Peyton was born in Eagleton, Indiana. His father gave him his first guitar at age 12. A friend pointed out that his guitar playing had a blues tone to it. That sent him off in exploration of blues artists starting with B.B. King and Muddy Waters and ultimately to the country style blues and the finger-picking style of Charlie Patton. As he graduated high school, he had a severe pain in his left-hand after playing at a party. He found he could not hold his hand in a fretting position, a condition doctors told him could not be cured. He briefly gave up on music, but eventually went to the Indiana Hand Center, which removed a mass of scar tissue which gave him the dexterity and flexibility to continue working on his finger-picking style.
While recovering from his surgery, he met Breezy who also had an interest in the country blues style. She played him an album from Jimbo Mathus and the two were ultimately married in 2003, A trip to Clarksdale, Mississippi encouraged them to play music. Breezy took up playing the washboard. Their early career took off with a two-night gig at Morgan Freeman’s Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale and an opening spot for the Derek Trucks Band in California, the twosome were encouraged to pursue a musical career and to tour full-time. That decision has led them to play up to 250 dates a year in 48 states and 38 countries.
With Rev. Peyton on guitar and vocals, Breezy on washboard and vocals and the addition of Jacob “The Snakob” Powell on percussion, the band has gained notoriety as “the greatest front-porch blues band in the world”. Still located in Brown County, Indiana, Peyton decided to record an all-acoustic album in his living room as a throw-back to his roots. Ultimately Jacob encouraged to him to re-record many of the songs with a mix by six-time Grammy Winner Vance Powell. And as the album was being completed, several guests were added to the mix. The album is the twelfth full release from the band. The first album, “The Pork ‘n’ Beans Collection” was released in 2004.
The Rev. Peyton’s unmistakable gruff, growling vocals and his featured National guitar kick off the album with the title song, a reference to a woman he notes as “trouble, trouble but it’s all mine”, “hard to handle, soft to touch, she’s a lot but not too much”. On Robert Johnson’s “If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day”, he declares “I went to the mountain looked far as I could see because a man had my woman, and a lot of blues had me”. The first two songs feature Peyton’s solo guitar and vocals. The first guest appearance is from the gospel group The McCrary Sisters joining on backing vocals on “Looking for a Manger” as he notes “that I am a stranger…and sometimes a stranger is just looking for a manger”.
Breezy joins him on “Like A Treasure” as they sing “we belong together”. ” I want to stay in this forever.” Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “One Dime Blues” brings out the full band as he says, “I don’t have a dime, everybody hits the hard luck sometimes”. Billy Branch adds harmonica on Blind Lemon Jefferson’s “Nell (Prison Cell Blues)” as he cries “I would not be here if it had not been for Nell”.
Michael Cleveland then joins him on fiddle on a rollicking version of Keith Allison’s bluegrass song “Freeborn Man” with the band’s guitar-tech Aaron Ransdell playing an upright bass as Peyton advises, “My home is on my back, I know every inch of highway, every foot of backroad and every mile of railroad track”. He next says, ” I Can’t Sleep” as he heard “a cry down the street”. “Let Me Go” picks up steam again as he declares “my work is at overflow”.
Colton Crawford from The Dead South band joins on banjo on “The Good Die Young” as he is “just waiting on my ship to come…just waiting on my love to finally up and change”. The traditional “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning” follows. He brings the album to a jumping conclusion as he declares “Your daddy don’t like me, but your “Mama Do”.
While the Big Damn Band does briefly surface on a few songs, this is primarily a Rev. Peyton solo album with his added guests and the band joining as sort of a guest slot as well on the album. As usual for any Rev. Peyton album, it is a consistent full-energy blast with him burning up on the guitar strings.
