Onstage the Reverend Peyton (aka Josh Peyton) is a raging bear of a man, prowling around the stage and roaring his way through his take on Charley Patton-derived country blues and raw rock ‘n’ roll.
His gruff persona throughout the set is directly opposite to his thoughtful, quiet manner during a recent conversation that discusses the Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band’s latest release, Between the Ditches, the influence of 20th century’s earliest blues artists and how the combination of him on vocals and slide guitar, his wife Breezy on washboard and backup vocals and Aaron Persinger on drums has been embraced equally by country crowds and young punk rock audiences.
The trio act as one massive energetic force the response to the Big Damn Band is immediate. That’s what occurred during my introduction to them four years ago at the All Good Festival.
“At All Good we had like 15 minutes,” said Peyton, recalling that day. “So, what do you do in 15 minutes to show people who you are? I remember that set, thinking, “Man, let’s just come out, kick people in the face and be done with it. Some of these short sets, it’s so tough to figure out what to play. I spend a lot of time thinking about what the set is gonna be from night to night. A lot of people, maybe, they don’t realize it. I like my set to have a start, a middle and a finish so I write it out that way. It’s like a wave that starts and has a finish.”
Subsequent performances at Bonnaroo and Bunbury festivals showed that not much has changed in the group’s live show since that All Good appearance.
With “Between the Ditches” Peyton aims for that same consistency in the recording studio. After six previous releases that left him unsatisfied he focused on putting down on tape a better representation of the songs rather than what he feels were rushed efforts in the past. With that approach he’s quite proud of the results and views it as the direction for his Big Damn Future.
JPG: A light went on when I saw you last July at Bunbury Music Festival. Pennywise’s “Bro Hymn” played just before you walked onstage Pennywise’s “Bro Hymn” played just before you walked onstage. Is that something the soundman did or do you play that before every gig?
RP: Yeah, a lot of ‘em. It’s one of those things where we have certain songs we sometimes play and that’s one of the ones that we do, the pre-show music. We actually got to hang with those guys on the Warped Tour and had a blast with ‘em. I got to play “Bro Hymn” a few times with ‘em and it was pretty fun, man.
JPG: Your music is steeped in American roots, country blues and Delta blues but there’s intensity to it. Watching the crowd react to it, it also makes sense that you played with a punk rock band.
RP: (laughs) It’s kinda funny. We can hang with punk rock bands, I guess. I never really listened to much punk rock when I was growing up. I listened to old blues and old roots music and old rock ‘n’ roll, mainly country blues, so I was kinda late to the party. But we found out when we started playing that we could play with punk rock bands and, really, just about anybody. It’s been amazing to find out. We’ll play a country festival one weekend – straight-up traditional country fest – and the next weekend we’re at a folk fest and the next weekend we’re at the Warped Tour. We can live in a lot of those different worlds.
It’s been something that we’ve been pretty lucky. A lot of bands say they can but if you look out at our crowd at a show there’ll be old guys that are 78 record collectors, fans of Charley Patton, and they’re standing right next to, maybe, a kid that’s got blue hair and a Ramones t-shirt on.
JPG: I see that your debut came out in 2004 but when did the band actually start?
RP: Probably around then. We’ve been full-time on the road for six-and-a-half years. I forget exactly when but we’ve been playing as the Big Damn Band somewhere close to around then.
JPG: The reason I ask that is when you said that you can play to different audiences, how long did it take you to realize that?
RP: It was some of our earliest shows. We were asked to play at some venues that were easily punk rock venues and it went over well. We played a couple showcases on some bills with some rock ‘n’ roll bands and it went over really big. In my mind it flipped the switch, “We might have something here. It seems to appeal to a lot of people.”
I wasn’t sure. I thought maybe there’d be a few traditional blues fans that understood what we were doing, people who knew who Charley Patton or Bukka White was. I figured that some of them would understand where I was coming from. But I had a feeling that some of those blues people wouldn’t even know who they were or get us at all and, maybe, we’d just be playing for ourselves. That would have been fine, too, but after just a few shows we were going, “Man, we might have something here. Maybe, there are people out there that would want to hear this.” It didn’t take long before we had built up a pretty good following in places.
We had to, basically, make a decision. Are we gonna do this and live in a van or are we gonna give up doing this because we can’t do it all? And we chose to get in the van.
JPG: Your tour schedule, I see a lot of festival dates…
RP: Yeah, a lot of festivals. I enjoy festivals. We have a lot of fun there. I love playing outside, and it’s with music fans. It’s definitely something that we do really well at and we do a lot of ‘em in the summer from Austin City Limits to Bonnaroo to Sturgis to Warped Tour. We’ve done a lot of really cool festivals, and I really love them.
JPG: Seeing Big Damn Band play live it’s like a gale force wind, in-your-face type of thing musically. And then there’s you and Breezy mugging it up to the crowd. It has entertainment value, too, but have there been times where you’re not taken as seriously as you’d like or is it just a matter that if someone doesn’t get it then that’s their problem?
RP: I don’t know, man. I think, especially with this new record, it helps define better who we are. It’s very diverse in sound, especially in terms of the songwriting. A lot of people if they can’t get past the first song they don’t really pay attention to what has happened over the course of the entire show. I think they just see it as one thing.
Some of our other records, some of the big songs off of them…like The Whole Fam Damnily [album], the big one off of that was “Your Cousin’s On Cops.” Everybody wanted to hear that song and the song got played in a bunch of places but there’s a whole record on there. The majority of it was actually dark. Lyrically, it was heavy. For certain people they’re only going to hear that hit song. They’re not going to pay attention to whatever else is going on.
It’s the same for shows. We’ll have an hour of songs where two-thirds of ‘em are really heavy lyrics and dark and about social things that are going on in the world that are terrible. Definitely, the hit songs are fun, too. I just think that some people, they listen to music differently than other people. They hear “Clap Your Hands” and “Two Bottle of Wine” and that’s it. They didn’t hear the rest of the songs that are not that way, that are dark, like “Devils Look Like Angels” and “Something for Nothing” on the new record and from the old records, like “Everything’s Raising” off “The Wages” and “Can’t Pay the Bill” off “Whole Fam Damnily.”
I was talking about this yesterday with some people…some people, they don’t hear music the same as other people. They don’t digest it the same way. Everybody does it in a different way. All you can do is be true to your own self.
Part of it, too, is I believe in puttin’ on a show. In terms of that it’s not about being something you’re not or smoke machines. It’s about playing and giving 150 per cent every night, and being present, not pretending like the crowd isn’t there. That always bothers me when you go to a show and the people onstage are trying to pretend like there’s no crowd there. Sometimes, it’s the same as the crowd. It all begins with the band onstage.
For us live music is about community and sharing that experience. If you don’t acknowledge it then you left out maybe the most important part of the equation in terms of seeing a live band. Otherwise, we can just sit at home and listen to the record.
JPG: Bringing things together – playing live and the new record – some of the songs on “Between the Ditches” sound familiar. Were you playing any of the material in concert prior to recording and releasing it?
RP: Over the last six months we’ve been playing lots of new songs that we recorded in January. “Easy Come Easy Go,” that’s a song we’ve been playing for awhile and never made it on a record. I wrote that song right after we got done recording “The Wages.” I liked it so much I started playing it live. People request that song a lot. So, I knew it was gonna end up on a record one day and I’m glad that it made it on this one. It’s a pretty good song and it seems to fit in well with the rest of the songs on this record.
JPG: What was it about the rest of the songs on this record that you remembered “Easy Come Easy Go” and decided that it would fit here?
RP: I write a lot of songs I keep them organized in a notebook. It comes down to, what I feel personally, is the best stuff at that given time. And I felt like that song held up even after playing it for a year-and-a-half or two.
JPG: In the press release you talk about how your approach this time was to make a “record” not a “recording.” Why the different approach?
RP: Well, in the past, man, most of our records were like field recordings. It’s amazing to be doing this at this level and have records that are like field recordings. It’s crazy. I wanted this one to be a record. So, I took charge first thing and I wanted to make sure I got my way and be how I wanted it to be.
In terms of the sound this record is more ‘up’ than any record we’ve ever done, sonically. We played this at a record store the other day and one of the fellows from behind the counter said, “Man, we’ve had live in-stores with all kinds of bands but we never had a band that sounded this much like the record live.” It’s always never as good as the record or… I wanted to make a record that felt like it was live. We’re just the next level of country blues but you see us live it’s kinda like a rock ‘n’ roll show, and I wanted to get that on a record. It felt good.
There’s something else, too. We’ve always been known for live appearances. “Go get the record.” “Oh, we’ll just catch ‘em live.” I wanted a record that made you say, “Hey, I gotta see them live.” I’m real proud of it.
JPG: The two sides within the band – country blues and rock ‘n’ roll – was that coming together when you were growing up? Practicing fingerpickin’ guitar at home during the day and then going to see rock shows at night?
RP: I never set out to do anything other than make my own music. When I hear Charley Patton, he’s a good example ‘cause I love him so much, if you could imagine Charley Patton playing the drums and I don’t think you’d be that far off from what we do. It’s the same with Furry Lewis or [Mississippi] John Hurt, Fred McDowell. We’re not really like Skip James or even Robert Johnson. We’re more like Charley or Furry or John Hurt. If you take them guys and put ‘em with drums, I don’t think they’d be that far off from what we do. It’s one thing people forget. These guys were making dancing music. That was the whole idea. Fast forward through to the last 80 years of music from Chuck Berry to the Rolling Stones, that was kinda the idea.
I never wanted to make music that pretended like the last 80 years didn’t happen. Go back and regurgitate old melodies and the same old songs. I wanted to make music that hadn’t really been done before.
It’s a disservice to people if all you’re doing is the same ol’ stuff. Our music is fresh. If you put it on your ipod and it can sit next to whatever else you’re listening to but it also doesn’t disrespect anything that’s come before it. Hopefully, it sounds timeless as opposed to contrived. I never want to use some of the studio things that are happening right now that are gonna date things that are coming out right now. That’s something that I never want to have happen. Like, if you listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival next to us, it holds up-to-date. It sounds as awesome now as it did then.
JPG: You mentioned Charley Patton, Fred McDowell and others…you started off listening to your dad’s blue rock records, say the Rolling Stones, but not everyone looks at the songwriting credits on those albums and goes back to those and other musicians. What was it that caused you to do that and made you so awestruck and inspired by them?
RP: I heard the blues from the Rolling Stones, Johnny Winter. Then, go back to Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. From there you can go back to Son House, Bukka White and from there you go back to Charley Patton. When I heard that stuff, the old country blues, it blew my mind. It was hard for me to fathom as a kid. I felt like the songs, too, they weren’t as beholden to a formula. A lot of times blues has a formula, 12 bars and turn around and shuffles…That’s it. That’s what blues songs are. With Charley Patton there is no formula. It’s whatever he felt like was cool at the time. I’ve heard people argue “Charley Patton wasn’t really playing blues.” Well, if you were to ask Howlin’ Wolf or Muddy Waters what he was playing they would say he was playing blues. He made songs that were fun to listen to or said something or both. They were fresh, original and that’s what Charley was doing, man. He was trying to entertain people. He was trying to stand out. There hadn’t been any label. He was one of the first people to actually record music. So, there wasn’t labels to try and pigeonhole people. There wasn’t radio stations trying to come up with a format. He was just doing what he thought was cool and trying to show people a good time.
I just love that. I think you can totally hear it in his songs. If you listen to Furry Lewis, it’s the same thing. He’d throw his guitar in the air and catch it in the same song. Catch it and coming out playing. There’s a few videos of Furry that are still left. There’s nothing, no videos, left of Charley. When you see those cats do it, and hear the music, it sounds just like, maybe, cry yourself to sleep stuff but the earliest blues stuff, it was happy.
JPG: Back to Charley Patton, is that why you made the Peyton On Patton album in order to shine a light on his work for people who don’t go as deep into the music as you did?
RP: Yeah. I wanted people to hear Charley because his recordings were pretty rough, and I think, sometimes, people can’t get past those recordings. They can’t get past that to hear what is going on in his actual guitar pickin’. So, I wanted to do that. That’s why I did it the way I did it, where I could have taken that and made it a Big Damn Band record but I tried to take myself out of that a little bit and stay real true to his arrangements. Do it exactly the way he did it so people could hear it that way.
Also, too, it was kind of a challenge to myself to see if I could get a whole bunch of myself out of it. It was a fun thing to do. I hope to do more fun things like that. I’ve got a couple ideas. We did this gospel record a few years ago that was a lot of fun, and I feel that the Charley Patton record was along those lines, kind of in-between the records to do some fun for the fans and for ourselves.
JPG: Since 2006, you’ve pretty much put out an album a year…
RP: Yeah, I guess we have. Someone pointed it out to me recently. I hope we are able to keep up bringing new stuff out for people. I’ve got a lot of music inside of me and I feel like my best stuff is ahead of me.
JPG: The album title, Between the Ditches. I know the song is about touring but is the title a reference to some of the best touring advice as far as driving from gig to gig to gig?
RP: Yeah, it’s a little bit of that. I put that in a song ‘cause that’s something I say a lot. I always say, “Cops and thieves are everywhere” (which is a line in the album’s title track). When you’re on the road, man, it’s hard. You rely on the kindness of strangers and you’ve got to watch out because the way society is set up, the way law enforcement works, it only works when people notice something that’s out of the ordinary, they’ll call. But when you live life on the road everybody and everywhere is out of the ordinary. What’s out of the ordinary at a truck stop or a rest area, everything is. So, you’re kinda on your own out there.
JPG: I know you go by Reverend Peyton or Josh, but is it true that you’re really an ordained minister?
RP: Legally, and I’m also a Kentucky Colonel. I was so proud when that happened. It was really neat. The highest honor the Governor of Kentucky can bestow upon a civilian.
JPG: Now, how did you get that because you’re from Indiana?
RP: Southern Indiana.
JPG: Yeah, but that’s still not Kentucky.
RP: Well, it’s a service award, and it’s a pretty cool thing.
JPG: Okay. It just seemed like the kind of award that only would be given to someone who lived in the state.
RP: No. In Indiana it’s called the Sagamore of the Wabash. It’s a similar deal. A lot of states have ‘em. Nebraska, I think they call their people Admirals. It’s sort of making fun of Kentucky Colonels ‘cause Nebraska is completely landlocked. Kind of funny.
JPG: As far as being an ordained minister, I don’t know if I’m opening a can of worms but have you been asked by fans to marry them?
RP: (laughs) Every now and then. It’s one of those things where…way back in the day I used to actually do it but it’s not something I mess with anymore. I’m too busy making music.
