“The greatest front-porch blues band in the world,” three-time Blues Music Award nominees The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, bring their raucous, gritty blues stylings to the Pearl Street Warehouse on Friday, Nov. 17. Though they’re only a trio, they bring the big noise. A hard-touring unit, they’ve opened for acts for like ZZ Top and played festivals all over the United States and Europe. Their albums have regularly topped the Billboard Blues Albums charts.
If you’re a guitar geek, this is a show you have to check out. The Reverend has a variety of customized instruments which he’s made himself. I’ve seen gear at his shows, like a cigar box guitar, that I’d only heard of. And he can play the hell out of all these cool guitars. He’s widely considered one of the best fingerpickers working today.
Watch the official music video for “Rattle Can” by The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band on YouTube:
The Reverend Peyton is also a working scholar of the blues tradition who’s recorded an album of songs by the foundational Charley Patton. Every time I’ve seen this band, I’ve walked away a little smarter about music history. This show is sure to be a learning experience.
There’s an old chestnut about the blues, that you play it because you’re sad, but once you play it, it lifts your spirits and the spirits of your audience. The Big Damn’s latest album, Dance Songs For Hard Times, epitomizes this. Written about serious life struggles, the album hits a groove and makes you move. It garnered some of the Reverend’s best critical reviews. If you’re feeling down next week, come down to the Pearl Street Warehouse, and take in as joyful a celebration of life, music, and history as you’re likely to see this year.
The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band
Pearl Street Warehouse
Friday, Nov. 17
Doors @ 7pm
$20
21+