Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Honeysuckle
Family Owned Records
“The greatest front-porch blues band in the world,” an understatement if ever there was one, releases their new album, Honeysuckle. The name of the band is Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, which is made up of Reverend Peyton, his wife, Washboard Breezy Peyton, and Jacob “The Snakob” Powell.
Speaking about the album, Reverend Peyton says, “This record is a bit of a return to my roots, a very personal mix of old and new songs that shaped me or that I’m currently shaping. It’s the most acoustic record we’ve made in years, using all vintage equipment: microphones, guitars, and recording gear, and a lot of me and my National guitar. There is a smattering of Big Damn Band thrown into the mix to spice things up, and a short list of legends that I’ve always dreamed of collaborating with.”
Produced and recorded by Reverend Peyton, Honeysuckle was mixed by six-time Grammy winner Vance Powell (Chris Stapleton, Jack White). Special guests on the album include gospel music group The McCrary Sisters on the song “Looking For A Manger,” Blues Music Hall of Famer and Grammy-nominated harmonica player Billy Branch, who plays on the Blind Lemon Jefferson song “Nell (Prison Cell Blues),” Grammy award-winning and IBMA’s 10-time Fiddle Player of the Year Michael Cleveland plays on “Freeborn Man,” and Colton Crawford from The Dead South plays banjo on “The Good Die Young.” Renowned photographer Bill Steber provided the cover art for Honeysuckle.
Encompassing a dozen songs, highlights include the title track, a song narrating a relationship with a magnificently volatile woman. Potently raw and oh-so evocative, the Reverend Peyton’s vocals imbue the lyrics with intimate pangs of possessiveness.
“Lesser man / Might go insane / I’m man enough I don’t need her tame.”
A personal favorite because of its blues-flavored gospel tangs, “Looking For A Manger” features the vocal harmonies of The McCrary Sisters, whose sublime voices add glowing depth to the tune. Talking about the song, Reverend Peyton says, “When I was a kid, my Mom told me that sometimes strangers you encounter were angels in disguise. Inspired by that memory and gospel songs like Blind Willie Johnson’s ‘Everybody Ought to Treat a Stranger Right,’ I built the song up from a riff I had been working on.”
Another gem, “Freeborn Man” opens on twangy, bending riffs, and then transitions to a driving Mississippi bluegrass melody featuring the dazzling, sawing fiddle of Michael Cleveland. Brimming with liberated energy, this track persuades listeners to sway.
Oozing thick, bluesy colors, “I Can’t Sleep” bleeds a dark, melancholic mood. Whereas “The Good Die Young” finds Reverend Peyton subduing his full-sized voice just a bit, making it more melodic, which adds weight to the lyrical query, “But if the good die young / Then how are we growing old.”
“Mama Do,” a bouncy, visceral, and deliciously muddied blues tune, reflects ambivalent attitudes toward a ladies’ man. Reverend Peyton’s rasping, carefree vocals convey his boldly relaxed mindset toward the paradox.
Fortified by Reverend Peyton’s huge, rich, booming voice, Honeysuckle captures the inimitable essence of rough-and-ready blues.
