The new album from Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Honeysuckle, is scheduled for independent release on February 21, 2025, through Family Owned Record/Amplified Distribution. Often called “the greatest front-porch blues band in the world,” the Big Damn Band is led by Peyton, who is considered to be the premier finger picker playing today.
The artist has earned a reputation as both a singularly compelling performer and a persuasive evangelist for the rootsy, country blues styles that captured his imagination early in life and inspired him and his band to make pilgrimages to Clarksdale, Mississippi, to study under such blues masters as T-Model Ford, Robert Belfour and David “Honeyboy” Edwards.
The new record, Honeysuckle, was produced and recorded by Reverend Peyton and mixed by six time Grammy winner Vance Powell. The record features many special guests, including gospel music group The McCrary Sisters on the song “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.”
While talking about his latest project, 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.”
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
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