While they're only a trio, the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band deliver a sound that lives up to their name, with thick, bass-heavy, blues-based guitar figures and growling vocals accompanied by muscular but minimal drumming and the metallic percussive scratch of a washboard (making them one of the first rock bands to regularly feature the latter instrument since Black Oak Arkansas). Their style is informed by rural blues, honky-tonk country, and the rebellious spirit of rock & roll, as Reverend Peyton's raw and wiry guitar figures add texture to their straightforward melodies. 2010's The Wages and 2012's Between the Ditches typified the trio's rowdy style, 2017's The Front Porch Sessions caught them in stripped-down and elemental form, and 2021's Dance Songs for Hard Times was a raucous set of songs that emerged from a variety of personal crises. The group was formed by guitarist and singer Reverend Peyton, who was born and raised in Indiana, and first exposed to music through his father's record collection, which was heavy on Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan -- all artists with their own take on the blues. When Peyton was 12 years old, his dad gave him a Kay guitar, and once he learned his way around the instrument, he got an amp to go along with it. With his brother Jayme Peyton on drums and a mutual friend on bass, he formed his first band, Drive-Thru, and began playing parties and dances as he developed a greater passion for vintage blues, ranging from the electric blues of icons like Muddy Waters and B.B. King to country-blues artists such as Bukka White and Charley Patton. Not long after finishing high school, Peyton broke up Drive-Thru after developing a severe case of tendonitis that made it extremely painful for him to play the guitar. However, after a year working as a hotel desk clerk, doctors at the Indiana Hand Center were able to perform surgery that allowed him to play the guitar again, and around the same time, he met a woman named Breezy, who shared his love of the blues. The two fell in love and eventually married; they decided to form a band, with Peyton on guitar and vocals and Breezy on vocals and washboard. Jayme Peyton rounded out the group on drums, and the Big Damn Band were born. The band hit the road hard -- playing up to 250 dates a year -- and in 2004 cut their first album, The Pork n' Beans Collection, which they self-released, selling thousands of copies at the merch table at their shows. After two more self-released albums (2006's Big Damn Nation and 2007's The Gospel Album), Peyton's Big Damn Band struck a deal with Side One Dummy, a punk label with a fondness for aggressive roots music, and 2008's The Whole Fam Damily was their first release for the label. In late 2009, Jayme Peyton left the Big Damn Band, and Aaron "Cuz" Persinger took over the group's makeshift drum kit (complete with a modified bucket). Two more albums for Side One Dummy followed (2011's Peyton on Patton, with the group covering the songs of blues legend Charley Patton, and 2012's Between the Ditches) before Persinger left the Big Damn Band and Ben "Bird Dog" Bussell signed on as drummer in 2013. In 2014, the Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band signed a new record deal with the relaunched blues label Yazoo Records; their first release for the company, So Delicious, appeared in January 2015. For 2017's self-produced, down-home The Front Porch Sessions, the group signed to Thirty Tigers. The full-length Poor Until Payday followed a year later, and hit number five on Billboard's Heatseekers chart. It also introduced the band's new drummer, Max Senteney. The year 2020 brought plenty of challenges for the group: their touring schedule was shut down, Breezy struggled with health problems, and the Peyton family's home was hit with an extended power failure. The obstacles inspired Reverend Peyton to write a set of new tunes reflecting the tough times spreading across the country and around the globe. With producer Vance Powell at the controls, Peyton and his band went into an eight-track recording studio and cut Dance Songs for Hard Times, released in April 2021 on Thirty Tigers. ~ Mark Deming