The Rev.Peyton’s Shotgun Guitar & Big Damn Band

What do you get when you combine the strumming of washboards set ablaze, a 5-gallon bucket and marching band bass drum with a real Reverend and Kentucky Colonel who can play any stringed instrument from the last 150 years? You are bestowed with the unparalleled blend of bluesy folk, ragtime and (real) country dropkicked with the modern energy of polished DIY punk rock’n’roll that is The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band! (Sidenote: This article cannot do justice to all that is The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, but clicking every link and watching all the videos will provide a much better insight, trust the music gods on this one, you’ll be thankful you did.)

How big is the Big Damn Band? Well, there’s three of them, BUT the showmanship, talent, and love for playing music is damn big, to say the least. Plus, The Rev is a big dude himself, in a corn-fed downhome teddy bear type of way. That’s if said teddy bear could break all of your fingers during a friendly handshake. If you’ve internetted lately there’s a chance you’ve seen The Rev impeccably playing and shooting a shotgun guitar. Shotgun guitar you ask? Well, you’ll have to see it to believe it!

While releasing nine albums over the last twelve years, The Rev, his washboard wailing wife Breezy and most notably their third drummer (out of four) Ben ‘Bird Dog’ Bussell still have time tour 250+ days every year. From tiny historic venues to Bonnaroo and cruise ships, the Big Damn Band have played with the likes of Flogging Molly, Rancid, Fishbone, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Frank Turner, G Love and Special Sauce, Blues Traveler, The Avett Brothers and Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. It’s pretty safe to say they offer something for anyone who enjoys the energy and audio of a uniquely soulful artist that transcends Americana and roots rock music.  

All of this hard work and 100% self-taught skills has led the front porch trained trio to gain large notoriety from John Mellencamp, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Marky Ramone and Morgan Freeman. Their music has also been featured on various Van’s Warped Tour Compilation, Showtime’s critically-acclaimed Shameless and a Jerry Springer pay-per-view special. Even with dozens of catchy noteworthy tunes there’s still is a respect paid to musicians they admire by covering Charlie Patton, Rancid, Smokey Robinson and Bo Diddley classics. If you get the chance, bring the whole fam damnily… err the whole damn family.

Whether it’s kicking crash cymbals across the stage, serenading drunk Santas, guitar singing the National Anthem at Butler or playing 18 instruments in one song, The Reverend Peyton continues to innovate and impress music and entertainment fans regularly.  To quote their song ‘Music and Friends’ off So Delicious, The Reverend (and his Big Damn Band), “just want to make music and friends, everywhere that I go!”. So next time they are playing at a venue near you, and assuredly they will be, bring your buds, the kids and even your mother to make friends with The Reverend and his Big Damn Band.

From and old fan to hopefully new fans, be advised that whilst The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band all adorn everlasting smiles on stage, tell some great campfire stories between songs and exude hospitality before and after every show, there’s a likelihood that Breezy will melodically bounce her tambourine off her your head if you are at the front of the stage and The Rev will transform his cigar box guitar into a cigar box bat if you throw shit at him. After all, they are known to “Raise a Little Hell“. Yet, if you’re real nice and friendly he will treat you to his one of a kind skill of playing the bass line and guitar fret melody on the same guitar at the same Big Damn time!

Now quit reading and get to watching some of the best music from The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band!

www.bigdamnband.com