Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band @ Colectivo

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The pandemic proved to be a difficult time for Reverend Peyton. First and foremost, there was quite a scare when his wife (and washboard player in Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band), Breezy, fell ill soon after the country shut down. Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band plays Dec. 3 at Back Room @ Colectivo.

Peyton doesn’t know for sure if Breezy had coronavirus or pneumonia. But she had it bad.

“She had a 102 temperature for over a month. It was unbelievable. And her lungs will be permanently scarred. She has been going to get treatment at a lung COVID center. She’ll have lingering effects from being sick,” Peyton said in a recent phone interview. “We had a doctor at the hospital who told me when he sent us home, ‘I’ve never sent anybody home as sick as your wife is.’ He’s like, ‘I just don’t think you want to be here. We think we’re going to be inundated with elderly people. We don’t know what we’re going to do. So you just go home, and if she gets any worse, you’ll need to bring her back or call 911.’ I was just like ‘Uh, what?’ So we went home and I thought ‘Well, she’ll be better in a few days.’ Then a few days turned into a few weeks. It was just like ‘Oh my God, what are we doing? What’s going to happen here?’ That was the scariest thing for me.”

Breezy did eventually recover and Peyton suspects he had a milder bout with COVID that left him feeling foggy for several months. Another unsettling issue was whether Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, which also includes drummer Max Senteney, would survive the pandemic.

“I told Breezy at the beginning, I said man, if everybody goes and gets a different job, they’re going to start getting back to landscaping or whatever they’re going to do, then we’re not going to have a band,” he said. “We’re going to lose our crew and our band, and when it comes time to actually doing something again, everyone’s going to have roots taking hold in another business or job situation.”

Keeping Intact

Peyton, though, figured out ways to generate enough income to pay the group’s crew and keep the organization intact until touring could resume. He set up a Patreon account in which fans donated money for a variety of special band items and the group played monthly livestream shows that also generated funds.

If serious health issues and career uncertainty made life hard during the pandemic, one thing that came easily was new music, in the form of the studio album Dance Songs for Hard Times. 

Peyton had returned home from touring before the pandemic had hit, and as usually happens when he’s on tour, he had amassed a collection of song ideas that were in various stages of completion.     

But with the pandemic happening, Peyton felt his existing song ideas didn’t fit the times. Instead, during March and April of 2020, he split much of his time between caring for Breezy and writing new songs that would go on Dance Songs For Hard Times. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had so much come forth so fast that was so good, right that in such a short period of time,” he said. “It just felt like there was this whole record that was pouring out of me.”

Five Lightning Days

Later in the year, the Peytons and Senteney got together with producer Vance Powell and recorded “Dance Songs” in a lightning-quick five days live in the studio to eight-track analog tape.

The result—perhaps surprisingly given the difficult times in which the songs were created—is a lively and decidedly upbeat album. Yes, there are a few serious lyrics, such as “Ways and Means” (about financial struggles) and “No Tellin’ When” (about the uncertainty and isolation of the pandemic). But much of the album provides an emotional lift. As with the previous Big Damn Band albums, the new songs are rooted in classic earthy blues and feature Peyton’s highly accomplished playing, which moves easily between finger picked and slide guitar parts. The album comes out rocking on the boogying “Ways snd Means” and the frenetically fun “Rattle Can.” The energy only occasionally wanes from there, as “Too Cool to Dance,” “‘Til I Die” and “Sad Songs” offer more gritty high points on Dance Songs For Hard Times.

“It’s the best record we’ve ever done,” Peyton said. “It’s not just me saying it. Literally every review that mentioned it said that. 

Peyton and his bandmates plan to showcase a good number of the new songs on the current tour, but the show may come with a few surprises, too.

“It definitely is going to be pulling from the new record for certain, but at the same time, there’s enough time in the set that we can sprinkle stuff in from a lot of other records, too,” Peyton said. “And then also, too, I like to put stuff in the set that you can only see if you come to the show, things that aren’t on any record. I think that’s sort of a bonus for the people that are coming out and paying that full ticket price to see the show.”