BAND SPOTLIGHT | The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band

With a back story like a Hollywood movie, Josh, “The Reverend” Peyton was told he’d never play guitar again, met his wife and band mate “Washboard” Breezy while recovering from hand surgery and now plays around 250 shows annually. Toss in distant cousin Aaron “Cuz” Persinger on the drum kit (with a five-gallon plastic bucket included as part of said kit) and you’ve got a Big Damn Band traveling the country rocking venues from bars to festivals by incorporating old Delta blues and hillbilly styles into original songs. The sound is raw and simple with an old guitar playing fingerstyle blues through a crackling amp combined with very aggressive washboard scratching and the beat of the basic drum, to make a rowdy roar of rhythm for the rough and ready vocals of the Reverend to holler over. The RPBDB shares a record label with Flogging Molly and scores consistently on the Billboard Blues Chart, with Between the Ditches the most recent of eight records, released on Aug. 7, 2012.