The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band

While Reverend Peyton is a big dude with a booming voice, his band really isn’t that big in numbers. There’s the Rev himself, who plays a mean slide on his resonator guitar; his wife, Washboard Breezy, who scrapes the hell out of a washboard; and his younger brother, chugging away on a stripped-down drum kit. You get these three together, though, and they make some big damn music. Throughout most of last year’s Big Damn Nation, the trio rips through backwoods Mississippi Delta blues with the fervor and fury of the Ramones. This is stomping-and-hollering music at its finest. Most recently, the outfit dipped into some country-blues spirituals on The Gospel Album, the first of a series of themed EPs planned for release between records on its own Family Owned imprint.