Ryan's Gig Guide - August 2018

www.ryansgigguide.com 6 rgg Aug 2018 The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band bridges genres and eras with an intensity and effortlessness few contemporary artists pos- sess.And their latest album So Delicious ele- vates the trio’s work to a new level. Produced by Rev. Peyton, So Delicious, offers the band’s most diverse collection of songs buoyed by the Rev.’s supercharged six-string virtuosity - a unique style of fingerpicking in- spired by his Delta blues heroes, but taken to new, original heights. The fifth full-length original album by the group is their debut onYazoo Records, a label known for the historic reissues of blues and other old time American music that are the bedrock inspiration for the Rev.’s sound and approach. “Yazoo was my favorite record label growing up,” he explains.“For fans of old country blues and all manner of early American music, they are the quintessential label.And for me, it’s like being on the same label as Charley Patton and ‘Mississippi’ John Hurt.To think that Yazoo believes we are authentic enough to stand with the other people in their catalog means a lot.” 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 mod- ern energy of do-it-yourself, homespun, punk fueled rock.And performing tunes plucked from their lives, their community or from the canonical songbook that fed the Rev. Peyton’s formative creative identity. It’s a mix that’s allowed the band to win fans from all corners of the Americana and rock worlds, and bring a new generation to blues and other forms of American roots music. Led by Reverend Peyton the band also features his wife Breezy Peyton on washboard and Max Senteney on drums. So Delicious is a perfect Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band album, with songs that speak from the heart and capture the trio - whose sound has been honed over 250 annual tour dates during the last eight years - playing at their peak.The charging, anthemic “Raise a Little Hell,” also the set’s first video, lays out the band’s live modus operandi, thriving on a chugging beat and the Rev.’s resonator guitar riffs and mantra-like singing.The song was in- spired by a show at a folk festival, where one of the promoters - struck by the Big Damn Band’s raucous, juke joint power - told the Rev.,“Y’all sure raise a lot of hell.” “I said,‘Naw we don’t,’ “ the Rev. recalls. “And then I thought,‘Well, maybe we do raise a little hell.’” The sweet, joyful “Pot Roast & Kisses,” which the band has also committed to video, was written for Breezy.The Rev. was developing the finger-busting main riff after enjoying one of her pot roast dinners when the lyrics nat- urally fell into place.“Some people don’t be- lieve that we really live the way we sing about in our songs,” he explains,” but it’s true. Breezy and me are together and really love each other.We try to keep things sim- ple, like people have in Brown County, Indi- ana for a long time.And we really do live in the woods and forage for some of our food - like I sing about in ‘Pickin’ Paw Paws’ on Monday 20th August The Robin 2, Bilston, Wolverhampton 